Court Opinion

ID: 9730530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:14:53.200209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:07.253904
License: Public Domain

*429MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority is correct in stating that the mental competency of a witness is presumed until the party opposing the witness proves him to be incompetent. However,
“The fact that the witness is, at the time of testifying, or was shortly beforehand, a lawful inmate of an asylum for mental disease or defect, or an adjudged lunatic or defective, makes it necessary that his capacity should be examined into and an express finding appear.” Commonwealth v. Ware, 459 Pa. 334, 352, 329 A.2d 258, 267 (1974), citing 2 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 497, at 589 (3d ed. 1940) and District of Columbia’s Appeal, 343 Pa. 65, 72, 21 A.2d 883, 887 (1941). [Emphasis added].
The witness Cathy Brooks had been diagnosed as schizophrenic three years before this trial and had been committed to Allentown State Mental Hospital shortly after her arrest, still diagnosed as schizophrenic. She was a patient there at time of trial. These facts were certainly sufficient to cast considerable doubt upon her capacity to testify and to show a need for psychiatric examination or, at the least, a hearing to determine her competency. Having shown such need, the appellant should have been given the opportunity to establish by expert testimony the incompetency of the witness. The trial court improperly admitted Brooks’ testimony when appellant had clearly shown the need for further inquiry into her competency.
In addition, I cannot agree that denial of pre-trial discovery vras proper. The Sixth Amendment guarantees to an accused the right to effective assistance of counsel. Any evidence which could reasonably aid counsel in his defense should not be denied him. Failure to allow discovery of names of witnesses, physical evidence, or other pertinent material in the hands of the prosecution detracts from counsel’s ability to defend his client and leaves him at a substantial disadvantage. I must therefore agree with appellant that Rule 310, as applied, unconstitutionally denies *430her right to effective counsel which the Sixth Amendment guarantees.
I dissent.
ROBERTS, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.