Commonwealth v. Lacie
Commonwealth v. Lacie
Opinion of the Court
Appellant’s three assignments of error are to portions of the court’s charge to the jury. What is complained of by the first is free from error, for, in Commonwealth v. Drum, 58 Pa. 9, it was said: “He who uses upon the body of another, at some vital part, with a manifest intention to use it upon him, a deadly weapon, as an axe, a gun, a knife or a pistol, must, in the absence of qualifying facts, be presumed to know that his blow is likely to kill; and, knowing this, must be presumed to intend the death which is the -probable and ordinary consequence of such an act. He who so uses a deadly weapon
The three assignments of error are overruled, the judgment is affirmed and the record remitted for the purpose of execution.
Reference
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- Criminal law — Murder—Instructions. Where in a murder case the jury has been distinctly and properly instructed in a general charge as to what constitutes murder of the first degree, murder of the second degree and voluntary manslaughter and twice told that the duty was upon them of fixing the degree of the prisoner’s guilt, if they should convict'him, and in answer to points these instructions are repeated and nothing is to be found in any portion of the charge from which the jury could have inferred that the law’s presumption was that the prisoner’s guilt was that of first degree, a verdict of guilty of first degree murder was not disturbed.