Court Opinion

ID: 9728896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:18:37.47069+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:52.790971
License: Public Domain

CASTILLE, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
While I agree with the majority’s affirmance of appellant’s convictions, I disagree with its decision that a new penalty hearing is required. For want of an “s” on the verdict sheet submitted to the jury, a death penalty is reversed; thus, is form elevated over substance. I must respectfully dissent with the reversal of the death penalty as I do not believe that a typographical or grammatical error in the verdict sheet *29warrants a reversal of the well-considered verdict of the jury of Huntingdon County.
This Court, on many occasions has mandated that the jury charge by the trial court shall be evaluated on the basis of the entire charge and not on separate discreet portions of the charge as the majority has now done in the instant case. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Wortham, 471 Pa. 243, 369 A.2d 1287 (1977) (appellate evaluation of the charge must be based on an examination of it as a whole to determine whether it was fair or prejudicial). Evaluating the “charge as a whole,” in its proper context, I would find that the jury was appropriately informed that in order to impose the sentence of death, the single aggravating circumstance must outweigh the mitigating circumstances. Indeed the record reflects that the trial judge clearly informed the jury orally on at least two occasions that the single aggravating circumstance must outweigh the mitigating circumstances before the jury could impose the death penalty. It is difficult to comprehend how a simple typographical or grammatical error in the verdict slip is able to overcome the well-established principle that the jury is presumed to follow the court’s instructions. Commonwealth v. Tilley, 528 Pa. 125, 595 A.2d 575 (1991); Commonwealth v. Steele, 522 Pa. 61, 559 A.2d 904 (1989). Accordingly, I would affirm the considered decision of the jury to sentence appellant to death.
ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ., join in this concurring and dissenting opinion.