Court Opinion

ID: 9663692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:48:16.642896+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:17.663082
License: Public Domain

V. J. Brennan, J.
(dissenting). I disagree with *665my colleagues’ interpretation of the record in this case. I have no difficulty whatsoever in finding in this record "that measure of malice and absence of excuse or justification essential to the crime of murder in the second degree”. Granted that the testimony was conflicting, there was evidence on which the trial judge could have concluded that defendant, and not decedent, was the aggressor on each occasion. While one (and only one) witness did testify that decedent was armed with a tire iron, four others testified that he was not. Furthermore, there was evidence that between the initial and the fatal altercations, the defendant was attempting to secure a weapon.
Not only do I feel that this record sustains defendant’s conviction of second-degree murder, I am also of the opinion that it could also have sustained a conviction of murder in the first degree. I would affirm the court below.