Commonwealth v. Brady
Commonwealth v. Brady
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The question involved, as presented by the appellant, is whether there was an abuse of discretion by the court below in refusing a motion for a new trial (a- — because the verdict was against the weight of the evidence; b— because the principal witness for the Commonwealth after the trial made statements indicating that his testimony at the trial was untrue). The trial was conducted with such fairness that no exception was taken to the charge of the court, and in discharging the rule for a new trial, and in denying the motion in arrest of judgment, the whole question was very carefully considered.
Appellant’s counsel urges the second proposition as to after-discovered evidence as being the controlling one, and that a new trial should have been granted for that reason alone. It is incumbent on the parties who move for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence to satisfy the court — first, that the newly discovered evidence be such as could not, with reasonable diligence have been discovered and produced at the trial;
The assignments of error are overruled, the judgment is affirmed, and the record remitted to the court below, and it is ordered that the defendant appear in the court below at such time as he may be there called, and that he be by that court committed until he has complied with the sentence or any part of it which had not been performed when the appeal in this case was made a su-persedeas.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Criminal law — Larceny—New trial — After-discovered evidence. It is incumbent on parties who move for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence to satisfy the court — first, that the newly discovered evidence be such as could not, with reasonable diligence have been discovered and produced at the trial; second, that it be not merely cumulative; and third, that it is such as to render a different result probable in the retrial of the case. On the trial of an indictment for larceny, a motion for a new trial on the ground of alleged after-discovered evidence is properly refused, where such evidence consists only of depositions of a witness that his testimony when taken at the penitentiary, after the trial, differed in some important particulars from that given by him on the witness stand. Such witness stands discredited by his own testimony, and would be open to the game criticism as that given on the first trial. There could be no certainty as to his persisting in his second statement, or that the witness would not again change his mind.