Court Opinion

ID: 9754361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:57:13.038908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:52.549749
License: Public Domain

*448WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
I concur. In my judgment, however, the intention of the legislature in adopting 18 Pa.C.S. § 6104 was clear. The trial court was of the same opinion. Despite expressed misgivings, the trial court in this case charged the jury almost precisely as the legislature had provided.
I agree with the majority, for the reasons which it has so well expressed, that the trial court’s jury instruction deprived appellant of a fair trial. Having wrestled with and tried to understand the statutory provision on this and numerous prior occasions, however, I am persuaded that to the extent it supports a jury instruction such as was given in this case, the statute is arbitrary, irrational and unconstitutional. Therefore, I would so hold. By taking this step, we might well be able to prevent trial courts in the future from falling into the same error which the statute caused in this case.