Court Opinion

ID: 9692994
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:15:19.709892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:38.694862
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, Justice,
concurring.
I join the Majority, and write separately only to address footnote 8 of the Opinion. I reiterate the position I expressed in Commonwealth v. Chandler, 554 Pa. 401, 721 A.2d 1040 (1998), regarding the “life means life” issue. As I stated in Chandler:
[I]n cases where Simmons would require a “life means life” instruction, I agree with Chief Justice Flaherty that the court should instruct the jury that the defendant’s sentence could be commuted. Where future dangerousness is at *160issue, the impossibility of parole and the possibility of commutation are equally relevant, so the court should inform the jury of both contingencies.
In this case, I agree with the majority that future dangerousness was not at issue. Accordingly, I agree that the trial court properly declined to give a “life means life” instruction.