Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that to add “under the circumstances” to section 908’s language “common lawful purpose” would impermissibly increase the scope and intent of the statute and cause an unnecessary and unintended overlap with section 907 of the Criminal Code
How later courts described this case
- Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that to add “under the circumstances” to section 908’s language “common lawful purpose” would impermissibly increase the scope and intent of the statute and cause an unnecessary and unintended overlap with section 907 of the Criminal Code
- the defendant used an advertisement from a sporting good magazine to support his defense that a “Wyoming Knife” had a common lawful purpose as a hunting tool
- “Wyoming Knife” which consisted of metal handle with two finger holes incorporating two cutting blades, one facing outward and the other inward, was hunting implement which had “common lawful purpose,” and thus such knife was not “offensive weapon” for purposes of statute
- improper for court to add a phrase in its construction of statute where that construction affects scope of statute
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by State v. Fredette, 72 Or. App. 293 (1985)
Com. v. Fisher, 485 Pa 8, 400 A2d 1284 (1979), is distinguishable.
The opinion
LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the majority opinion; the appellant should have been prosecuted under Section 907 of the Crimes Code instead of Section 908.