(DOWNLOAD) "Commonwealth v. Carter" by Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Commonwealth v. Carter
- Author : Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
- Release Date : January 26, 1967
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 62 KB
Description
to call to the stand all available and material eyewitnesses. Commonwealth ex rel. Sprangle v. Maroney, 423 Pa. 589, 225 A.2d 236 (1967); Commonwealth v. Horn, 395 Pa. 585, 150 A.2d 872 (1959); Commonwealth v. Palermo, 368 Pa. 28, 81 A.2d 540 (1951); Commonwealth v. Deitrick, 221 Pa. 7, 70 Atl. 275 (1908). On the other hand, a number of decisions clearly indicate that when the Commonwealth does not call to the stand such an eyewitness, it must apprise the defense of the witnesss name and whereabouts at trial, unless the defense is able or should have been able to procure the witness unaided. Commonwealth v. Giacobbe, 341 Pa. 187, 19 A.2d 71 (1941); Commonwealth v. Karamarkovic, 218 Pa. 405, 67 Atl. 650 (1907); Commonwealth v. Danz, 211 Pa. 507, 522, 60 Atl. 1070, 1075 (1905). Unquestionably, this latter precept is derived from deeply rooted concepts of the proper role of the prosecution in criminal litigation and of the principles of fair trial. See Commonwealth v. Palermo, supra; Commonwealth v. Cramer, 168 Pa. Superior Ct. 1, 76 A.2d 661 (1950). The instant appeal presents to our Court for the first time the question of whether and to what extent a governmental privilege to refrain from disclosing the identity of an informer limits the prosecutions duty to make available to the defense the names and whereabouts of all