Com. ex rel. Donnell v. Myers

3 Citing cases

  1. Commonwealth v. Musser

    286 A.2d 652 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1971)   Cited 1 times

    Thus, the only way relief could be granted on appellant's requests would be to find as a matter of law that the conditions of appellant's incarceration were such as would overbear the will of the normal individual.Reckv. Pate, 367 U.S. 433, 81 S. Ct. 1541 (1961); Commonwealth exrel. Donnell v. Myers, 208 Pa. Super. 57, 220 A.2d 376 (1966). We are not convinced that the conditions here reached that magnitude.

  2. Commonwealth v. Musser

    214 Pa. Super. 128 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1969)   Cited 2 times

    These facts, if proven to be true and to be the primary motivation for the guilty plea, entitle appellant to relief. In Commonwealth ex rel. Donnell v. Myers, 208 Pa. Super. 57, 61, 220 A.2d 376 (1966), in another case dealing with the Lancaster County Prison, this Court described less harsh treatment lasting only 11 days as an "archaic and cruel type of confinement . . . sufficient to destroy the will power of almost any human being." Although Donnell dealt with a confession, intolerable confinement may coerce a guilty plea no less than a confession.

  3. Commonwealth v. McLean

    213 Pa. Super. 297 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1968)   Cited 8 times

    It is axiomatic that a jury must reject entirely a confession which has been coerced in any way. See Commonwealth v. Kloiber, 378 Pa. 412, 422, 106 A.2d 820, 825 (1954); Commonwealth exrel. Donnell v. Myers, 208 Pa. Super. 57, 220 A.2d 376 (1966). In Jackson v. Denno the court considered the New York procedure under which the trial judge, in making a preliminary determination of the voluntariness of a confession offered by the prosecution, excluded it only if under no circumstances could the confession be deemed voluntary, but left to the jury the ultimate determination of its voluntary character as well as its truthfulness if the evidence presented a fair question as to its voluntariness.