Court Opinion

ID: 9715756
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:13:37.173779+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:37.858995
License: Public Domain

HUTCHINSON, Justice,
concurring.
Because I believe appellant was fairly tried and convicted by a jury which had before it more than sufficient proper evidence to determine his guilt, I concur in affirming that conviction.
However, I am constrained to comment on one issue appellant raises. At his second trial, which resulted in the conviction now before us, appellant exercised his constitutional right not to testify. Nevertheless, the prosecution was allowed to read into evidence portions of his testimony at the first trial. Those portions were contrary to other direct evidence of the Commonwealth and were admitted for the purpose of establishing appellant lied to conceal his involvement, from which deliberate concealment the jury could infer consciousness of guilt. The admission of this prior testimony was based on long standing clear authority in the decisions of this court cited by Justice Nix. Opinion of the Court, ante at 255. The dissent correctly points out that such circumstantial evidence of guilt is weak. In this respect it is analogous to evidence of flight to avoid prosecution. Considering the whole record, I do not believe its admission warrants a reversal of this conviction. Nevertheless, the use of such prior testimony to establish guilt must be closely scrutinized and its admission is not to be lightly condoned, lest we permit a jury to assume the very point in issue, the truth of the Commonwealth’s contradictory evidence. I believe trial judges would be well advised to *503consider this factor in future cases in deciding whether or not to exercise their discretion in favor of admissibility. Thus, the trial judge should first determine there is other strong evidence of guilt, See Commonwealth v. Coyle, 415 Pa. 379, 203 A.2d 782 (1964) (flight as evidence of consciousness of guilt may form the basis in connection with other proof from which guilt may be inferred), and that the Commonwealth’s evidence contrary to defendant’s prior testimony clearly and convincingly shows that prior testimony to be false.