Commonwealth v. Wheeler
Commonwealth v. Wheeler
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appellant was convicted of murder of the first
Reference
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Criminal law — Murder—Insanity — Presumption of sanity — Charge of court. 1. Sanity is the normal condition of mind; its existence is to be presumed and the burden of proving insanity, rests upon the party relying upon it as a defense. 2. Where, in a murder trial, the fact that defendant killed deceased without justification or excuse was established beyond doubt, but the defense was insanity, the only question to be determined by the jury was whether the defendant’s insanity had been established by satisfactory proof, and it was not the duty of the trial judge to charge the jury that the defendant was entitled to the presumption of innocence.