Court Opinion

ID: 9712820
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:00:39.701045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:14.599656
License: Public Domain

Reardon, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part (with whom Quirico and Braucher, JJ., join). I am in agreement with those portions of the majority opinion which hold that there was sufficient evidence from which a jury could have found that the defendant committed murder in the first degree in connection with the commission of rape or an attempt to commit rape, and that the instructions to the jury on this issue were accurate and adequate for the reasons expressed in the opinion. I am also of the belief that the verdict should not be revised on the claim that the jury were cloaked with discretion to determine whether the death penalty should be imposed.
It is my belief, however, that the defendant’s claim that the mandatory death penalty in this instance violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution in that it provides for the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment is squarely presented, was fully argued, both by the Commonwealth and the defendant, and, in my view, can be and ought to be decided by this court on what is now before us.
I, therefore, am not in accord with the decision of the majority to permit the parties and others to file further briefs “on the narrow issue of whether the Commonwealth has a compelling interest which is served by imposition of the death penalty in rape-murder cases, and whether such penalty is the least restrictive means for furtherance of the Commonwealth’s permissible objectives.”
*454In short, it appears to me that what is now before this court is ample to enable it to dispose of this matter without further inquiry. In view of the fact that, as now seems, further argument by brief or otherwise is to be entertained by this court on this issue, I reserve the right to state my views thereon at such time as the court renders its ultimate opinion.