Court Opinion

ID: 9643508
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:31:46.69111+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:01.111088
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I believe the majority is in error in its treatment of the issue pertaining to the jury’s question about the defendant’s parole eligibility. Under Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994) and Commonwealth v. Clark, 551 Pa. 258, 710 A.2d 31, 35-36 (Pa.1998), the court must tell a jury that a life sentence means life without parole, if the defendant requests the instruction and his future dangerousness is at issue. Here, during deliberations in the penalty phase, the jury asked, “If a life sentence is imposed, is there any possibility of the Defendant ever being paroled?” I view this question as a clear expression of the jury’s concern about the defendant’s future dangerousness. I would therefore hold that the trial court’s refusal to explain the meaning of life without parole constituted error under Commonwealth v. Clark, supra. I would therefore reverse the order of the *397court of common pleas and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I would go further and require an explanation of the meaning of a life sentence in all capital cases. There can be no harm in instructing juries that in Pennsylvania appellant would be statutorily ineligible for parole if sentenced to life in prison, but that a life sentence might nonetheless be commuted by the governor. On the other hand, if we do not so instruct, a jury, erroneously believing that a prisoner sentenced to life may be paroled within a period of years, may impose the death penalty for reasons which are not based in law.