Court Opinion

ID: 9753127
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:59:37.021419+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:30.661116
License: Public Domain

•Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Justice Jones:
■ Under this court’s - ruling in- Commonwealth v. Almeida, 362 Pa. 596, 68 A. 2d 595, an accidental, kill: ing, which can; be factually |ound to have been a foreseeable result of the events set in train by-a. perpetration or attempt to perpetrate a felony, constitutes the felon guilty of • murder under the ■ felony-murder doc*527trine regardless of whose act directly caused the fatality. The distinction between the instant case and the Almeida, case is that the victim here was either a confederate or a dupe of the surviving alleged felon and not an innocent third person. The defendant is therefore triable for murder either because the death occurred as a result of an act of his confederate while furthering the felony, or from the defendant’s having ordered his dupe to perform an act of inherently great danger.
I agree that the admission at trial of certain objectionable portions of a tape recording was harmful and prejudicial error which necessarily requires a retrial of the case.