Court Opinion

ID: 9714327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:35:18.286859+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:25.227554
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
I join with the majority in affirming the Appellant’s convictions and his judgments of sentence, including his judgment of sentence of death. I must write separately, however, to continue my disassociation with the majority view in Commonwealth v. Goins, 508 Pa. 270, 495 A.2d 527 (1985), and Commonwealth v. Frederick, 508 Pa. 527, 498 A.2d 1322 (1985), regarding the reading of aggravating circumstance at Section 9711(d)(9) (42 Pa.C.S.) “a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person.”
I am still of the view, as confirmed by the legislature in its enactment of 42 Pa.C.S. Section 9711(d)(ll) and (12) in response to Goins, that the first degree murder of Davis Kelly by Appellant is properly joined with Appellant’s convictions of aggravated assault (the shooting of a woman in the Swan Bar) to constitute a “significant history” as required under 42 Pa.C.S. Section 9711(d)(9).