Court Opinion

ID: 9761864
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:57:16.354328+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:27.179243
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice, dissenting.
In Commonwealth v. Crawley, 514 Pa. 539, 526 A.2d 334 (1987), this Court held that the killing of a witness in a “pending” criminal proceeding was an aggravating circumstance under section 9711(d)(5) of the Sentencing Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(5). The majority interpreted the section to cover the killing of any witness in any type of “pending” *457criminal proceeding. It should be noted however that the qualification of “pending” is not contained in section 9711(d)(5).
The gravamen of section 9711(d)(5) is, as Mr. Justice Zappala noted, to punish a “frontal assault” on the judicial process. In the instant case the appellant admitted that he killed to forestall an identification. Certainly an admitted preemptive strike is a “frontal assault” on the judicial process; and I see no difference in the interest to be vindicated between the present situation and a technically “pending” criminal proceeding. Therefore, under the facts of this case, I think the prerequisite of section 9711(d)(5) was satisfied.
In addition I believe that the intentional cutting of a wife’s throat in the presence of her husband constitutes the intentional infliction of pain above and beyond the act of also killing the husband. See Commonwealth v. Pursell, 508 Pa. 212, 495 A.2d 183 (1985).