Court Opinion

ID: 9732008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:04:37.915127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:22.485521
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully note my dissent. I believe that the harmless error doctrine has been indiscriminately exaggerated and overextended. The jury here reasonably could have made the inference that appellant had engaged in prior criminal activity. Indeed, to the average juror the revelation that appellant was an “illegal alien” connotes malodorous and repugnant behavior. From those deliberate references to this unrelated and irrelevant criminal activity, the juror could derive appellant’s guilt. Therefore, I would find that the error was not harmless and that there was a reasonable possibility, even likelihood, that the references by the Commonwealth contributed to the conviction. See Commonwealth v. Story, 476 Pa. 391, 409, 383 A.2d 155, *245166 (1978) (citation omitted). Accordingly, I would remand for a new trial.