Court Opinion

ID: 9644028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:46:46.527574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:07.591398
License: Public Domain

CERCONE, Judge,
concurring:
I join in the rationale and result reached by the majority in the instant case with only one reservation. With respect to the question of the quantum of evidence required to establish corpus delicti before a confession can take a criminal case to the jury, no jurisdiction requires that the corpus *534delicti must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt solely on evidence independent of the confession. Professor McCormick has stated that to sustain a conviction: “It is not necessary that the independent proof tend to connect the defendant with the crime. Nor need the independent proof establish [corpus delicti] beyond a reasonable doubt.” McCormick on Evidence 347 (2d ed. 1972). Although jurisdictions differ in the amount of proof required, ranging from “slight” evidence to a “prima facie showing” of corpus delicti, none has required proof beyond a reasonable doubt. To the extent that today’s decision implied that Pennsylvania may require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, I disagree. See Commonwealth v. Ware, 459 Pa. 334, 367, n. 43, 329 A.2d 258 (1974).
HOFFMAN and PRICE, JJ., join in this concurring opinion.