Court Opinion

ID: 9696103
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:36:36.216219+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:18.588470
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the majority’s opinion in all aspects, with the exception of the analysis regarding the aggravating circumstance of torture. I would find that the Commonwealth did not present sufficient evidence to show that Appellant murdered Mrs. Spankowitch by means of torture.
While I agree with the majority’s statement of the law regarding the aggravating circumstance of torture, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(8), I disagree with the majority’s application of that law to the facts of this case.
The majority finds that:
by purposefully jumping on Mrs. Spankowitch’s back and fracturing her spine, [Appellant] demonstrated that he was not satisfied with merely killing Mrs. Spankowitch. He evinced the additional intention to cause pain and suffering beyond his desire to merely kill.
Majority opinion at 1138. The majority further states that Appellant also twisted Spankowitch’s neck simultaneous to *498incapacitating her by breaking her back. Id. at 1137. However, “[o]nly after Mrs. Spankowitch’s body moved did [Appellant] realize that he had not killed her by strangulation and that she remained alive.” Id. Upon that realization, he fatally stabbed Spankowitch in the neck.
I do not agree that the Commonwealth proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant was not satisfied with the killing alone, Commonwealth v. Caldwell, 516 Pa. 441, 532 A.2d 813, 817 (1987); or that the Commonwealth proved the “linchpin” of the torture analysis, which is the intent to cause pain and suffering in addition to the intent to kill, Commonwealth v. Edmiston, 535 Pa. 210, 634 A.2d 1078, 1091 (1993). However, I join the majority in finding that the Commonwealth did sufficiently prove that the killing was committed while in perpetration of a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6). Because there was at least one aggravating circumstance and no mitigating circumstances, the judgment of sentence is properly affirmed.