4 Mass. 391
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided May 15, 1808
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1808-05-15
The defendants were indicted at this term for the wilful murder of Ebenezer Parker. Held: towards the door, and it fell about two feet distant from it; that Drew, after throwing the sledge at King, returned to the shop door, and saw the bludgeon lying there ; that he reached in his hand, and took the bludgeon, and turned to the deceased, who had pushed the door partly forward, had come from behind it, and was standing…
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1808-05-15
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently September 2015 · most notably Commonwealth v. Pierce (1884), Commonwealth v. Farrell (1948)
1 federal appellate · 32 state decisions — followed in 17 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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¶1did not inquire into the truth of these allegations ; observing that if they were proved, they could not avail the prisoner .on any legal principles, by which alone the Court must be bound; and if they supported any equitable claims to favor for the prisoner, he might apply to the supreme executive, who had power [*400] to cause the sentence to be * executed, or who could pardon it absolutely, or on condition, at its discretion.
¶2Judgment of death was then pronounced against the prisoner