Court Opinion

ID: 9697142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:07:07.300949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:29.507007
License: Public Domain

*211McDERMOTT, Justice,
concurring.
The statute prohibiting the use of one’s religion as a basis for impeachment is aimed not only at the protection of unimpaired religious freedom but excision of irrelevant and peripheral sources of prejudice in a trial. The statute prohibits the Commonwealth raising the issue, it does not however prohibit the Commonwealth from responding to the issue when raised by the defendant. If one proffers his religion or idealism as inconsistent with his alleged actions, and his actions prove him a whited sephulchre, the worse for him. One may not preach from the witness stand his devotion to principle or religion, then retreat to the sanctuary, his devotion untested. The prohibition of the statute is not a per se rule of exclusion under all circumstances. See Commonwealth v. Mimms, 477 Pa. 553, 385 A.2d 334 (1978). Here the appellant attempted to dress himself in a Marine Corps uniform while painting the parish house. His commitment to both were to my mind subject to scrutiny, and the doing so in the small context of this case is insufficient ground for a new trial.
I concur, however, with the majority’s holding that denying the appellant the right to present complainant’s murder conviction was error. I believe that murder, being the ultimate crime puts one’s credibility to test upon that ground alone. To deny access to a witness’ conviction for criminal homicide is to allow the perpetrator of the one irremediable crime to appear an ordinary man, to be judged in his credibility by ordinary standards, when such is not the case.