Court Opinion

ID: 9757270
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:28:31.943396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:37.501399
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
concurring.
I join the majority in holding that a threat, fortified with an example from the actor’s criminal past, as proof of a present intention to gain a criminal purpose, is as admissible as a gun, knife, bomb or any other threat. If he chooses to use his criminal past as a token of his sincerity, he is no more prejudiced than was his victim.
A “threat” can be as palpable as a steel blade, the muzzle of a gun, or a ticking bomb. If the tool one uses to accomplish a criminal purpose prejudices him, so much the worse for him.
FLAHERTY and PAPADAKOS, JJ., join in this concurring opinion.