Commonwealth v. West
Commonwealth v. West
Opinion of the Court
There is but a single assignment of error here, and it alleges that “ the ingredients of murder in the first degree do not exist in this case.”
The principal defense was intoxication. It did not avail the
We are all clearly of opinion that the ingredients of murder in the first degree exist in this case. The fatal shot was fired from a deadly weapon and was directed against a mortal part. There was sufficient evidence, if believed by the jury, of deliberation and premeditation. The first shot did not kill but only disabled the officer. Between it and the time of firing the second and fatal shot ample time elapsed to enable the prisoner to form a conscious design to kill and to carry it into effect. As said by Judge Rush in Commonwealth v. Smith, “No time is too short for a wicked man to form in his mind his scheme of murder and to contrive the means of accomplishing it.” More deliberation with a clearer intent to take human life is seldom seen in homicide eases. After the officer had fallen and was lying disabled on the pavement, West stepped away from him. He then had time to think and deliberate. He did so, and as a result of his deliberation he retraced his steps and with deadly aim fired a bullet into his victim’-s brain. A recital of the facts as shown by the evidence clearly disclosed all the elements of murder in the first degree.
The judgment is affirmed, and it is ordered that the record be remitted to the court of oyer and terminer of Delaware county that the judgment may be carried into execution according to law.
Reference
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- Criminal law—Murder—Murder in the first degree—Intoxication—Premeditation. On the trial of an indictment for murder it appeared that at the time of the killing the prisoner, who had been drinking, was quarreling with a woman on the street, and flourishing a revolver. The deceased, who was a police office]', approached the prisoner and took hold of him, and requested the prisoner to go with him. The prisoner refused and fired a shot which took effect in the officer’s leg, and caused him to fall. The prisoner then stepped back two or three steps, turned from the officer, then again faced him, and while advancing towards him fired two shots in quick succession at his head, one of the shots piercing his skull and causing death. The prisoner then fled. Meld that a verdict of murder in the first degree should be sustained.