Commonwealth v. Margaret Biron

Commonwealth v. Margaret Biron. Homicide. — Manslaughter. Indictment for the murder of Jane McGIaughlin. It appeared in evidence, on the trial, that Hugh McGIaughlin, the husband of the deceased, rented from the prisoner, a part of the house in which she lived; that on the 10th of June 1792, while it rained hard, a noise was heard at the house, and the deceased was attempting to get in ; that she said, “ You whore, let me come in and the prisoner said, “ You whore, you shan’t;” that the deceased appeared to be then in liquor, though by all accounts, she was a very quiet woman ; that the prisoner opened the door, and she and the deceased began to struggle, when the former pushed the latter down the steps, and her head struck the wall; that the deceased seemed to be bent by her fall, and the prisoner came out of the house, saying, “ Ah ! this is the way I am troubled with this kind of people ! her husband has just left her in this situation;” that the witness observed, “You pushed her down,” to which she answered, “I did not;” but after the deceased was carried into the house, she acknowledged that she had done it, and said she was in a great passion ; and that the deceased and the prisoner used before *to quarrel, but had ^ not been seen to strike each other. On examining the deceased, Dr. *■ Hutchinson said, that he found considerable injury done to the bone on one side of the head ; but that the wound was not necessarily mortal; and he thought, from appearances, that the deceased must have been intoxicated, at the time of her fall. [MAJORITY — By the Court.] By the Court. — The circumstances present to the consideration of the jury, a case of atrocious manslaughter ; but in our opinion, no more. Verdict, guilty of manslaughter, but not guilty of murder, The indictment was tried in a court of oyer and terminer, in Philadelphia count} on the 19th of November 1792.