Cox v. Commonwealth
Case Details
- Judge(s)
- Clark, McCollum, Mitchell, Paxson, Williams
- Status — whether other courts must follow this ruling
- Published
- Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
- appeal
- State
- Pennsylvania
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Claim Types
Outcome
The court affirmed the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner's order dismissing Trooper Swaydis following a Court-Martial Board determination of misconduct, rejecting his due process challenges regarding commingling of prosecutorial and adjudicatory functions.
Excerpt
ERROR TO THE COURT OE QUARTER SESSIONS OE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY. No. 85 July Term 1888, Sup. Ct.; court below, No. . . . .....Term 1888, Q. S. On April 11, 1888, the grand jury returned as a true bill an indictment charging Dr. Henry M. Cox, George B. Evans and three others with having procured an abortion upon the person of Jennie R. Osborne. On April 12, 1888, a severance having been ordered, Dr. H. M. Cox was called to the bar and pleaded not guilty, when issue was joined. The testimony of the commonwealth established that Jennie R. Osborne, a young unmarried woman, had died on February 16, 1888, at a hotel in Easton, from an abortion committed, as was claimed, on February 11th. The testimony implicating the defendant on trial was circumstantial only, and the chief witness for the commonwealth was George E. Evans, a co-defendant who came upon the stand to testify under a promise of immunity. This witness was a salesman for a New York house, but resided in Jersey City. He visited Easton in a business way about every two weeks. Among his customers in other places was a merchant in Connecticut, in whose behalf he had arranged with the defendant and the proprietor of the hotel at Easton, that the young woman should be brought to the hotel to have the operation performed. According to the witness’s testimony he had met the defendant at the hotel at Easton on January 16th, and arranged with him then to perform the operation and to procure a nurse; and he had met the defendant a second time at the hotel on January 30th, when the young woman was brought there. This witness did not further implicate the defendant, who, as a witness in his own behalf, denied his guilt and called a number of patients whom he had visited at different hours on January 16th, some of whom had paid their bills, producing also the railroad time tables, to show that it was impossible for him to have been at Easton on that day. The defendant called also a witness, the holder of
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