Case ID: pa_506/html/0460-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

485 A.2d 1097
    COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Jeffrey DENNIS, Appellant.
    Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
    Argued Oct. 26, 1984.
    Decided Dec. 18, 1984.
    
      David Rudovsky, Philadelphia, for appellant.
    Joseph A. Smyth, Dist. Atty., Ronald T. Williamson, Chief, Appeals Div., Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
    Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.
   ORDER

PER CURIAM.

The order of Superior Court affirming the appellant’s conviction for third degree murder is affirmed. While the killing was unintentional there was plainly sufficient evidence to show that the appellant “consciously disregarded an unjustified and extremely high risk that his actions might cause death or serious bodily harm.” Commonwealth v. Young, 494 Pa. 224, 228, 431 A.2d 230, 232 (1981). See also Commonwealth v. Drum, 58 Pa. 9, 15 (1868) (malice exists “where there is wickedness of disposition, hardness of heart, cruelty, recklessness of consequences, and a mind regardless of social duty ... ”).