Killer v. Commonwealth

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Killer v. Commonwealth, 124 Pa. 92 (Pa. 1889)
16 A. 495; 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1008
Clark, Collum, Cuuiam, Mitchell, Paxson, Sterrett, Williams

Killer v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court

Pek Cuuiam :

We are asked by the first assignment of error to say that “ the evidence in this case does not prove the existence of the ingredients necessar^ to constitute murder in the first degree.” This we cannot do. The evidence pointed clearly to a wilful, deliberate, and brutal murder. The deceased was found in his bed, with his skull crushed in by a blow from some blunt instrument. The heavy iron sash-weight with which it was *99probably clone was lying, covered partly with blood, by his shoulder. His person was covered with a blanket to his neck. When found he was lying as if in sleep. There had been no struggle. One single, crushing blow with the heavy iron weight, whilst sleeping, had evidently ended his life. To say that such an instrument, when so used, is not a deadly weapon, evidencing an intent to take life, is a proposition that does not' require discussion.

The other assignments were not pressed, and are without merit.

The judgment is affirmed, and it is ordered that the record be remitted to the Oyer and Terminer for the purpose of execution.

Reference

Full Case Name
WILLIAM KILLER v. COMMONWEALTH
Cited By
2 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
On the trial of an indictment for murder, it was shown clearly that the deceased was found lying as if asleep in his bed, with his skull crushed in by a blow from some blunt instrument, his person covered with a blanket to his neck, his hands beneath the blanket and blood stained, and that a heavy iron sash-weight, also blood stained, was lying at his shoulders: in such case, the ingredients necessary to constitute murder in the first degree were proved to exist.