Court Opinion

ID: 9766925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:03:25.902715+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:27.259818
License: Public Domain

NIX, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I agree that the trial court’s ruling sustaining the objection to the question posed to appellant’s expert witness during direct examination was correct. I am also of the *318view that appellant’s argument relating to the proof of the absence of a specific intent to commit the robbery, under the undisputed facts of this case, must be rejected. However, I strenuously disagree with Mr. Justice Hutchinson’s bald conclusion that psychiatric testimony is admissible only to negate the specific intent required to establish first degree murder. If the defense had offered proper evidence, either psychiatric or otherwise, to negate the specific intent required by the underlying felony, that evidence should have been submitted to the jury for their assessment in the determination of the applicability of the felony murder principle to the case. Additionally, viewing the entire trial record I agree that the behavior of the attorney for the Commonwealth does not warrant the conclusion that the judgment of sentence must be vacated and a new trial awarded.
I.
The specific question to which defense counsel was not permitted to receive an answer from his expert medical witness was:
Q. All right. Now, Dr. Cooke, were you able to form an opinion with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty as to whether or not Marvin Garcia had an intent to steal anything from Mrs. Schmid prior to or before committing this homicide?
Whether Marvin Garcia had formed an intent to steal from his victim was exclusively within the province of the jury to decide. The expert witness’ role was to advise the jury of any psychiatric disorder that may have affected appellant’s capacity to form such an intention. Thus the question properly phrased, after a predicate of the mental problem had been established, would have elicited from the medical expert witness whether appellant’s condition would have prevented him from forming the intention required for the commission of the offense. Commonwealth v. Walzack, 468 Pa. 210, 360 A.2d 914 (1976); see Commonwealth v. Terry, 501 Pa. 626, 462 A.2d 676 (1983). The failure of *319defense counsel to properly frame the question justified the trial court’s refusal to permit an answer.
II.
A.
The appellant argues that he was denied the opportunity to prove that he did not possess the intent necessary to be convicted of robbery, the felony which underlies his felony murder conviction.1 While murder of the second degree is not one which necessarily has a requisite specific intent, a specific intent may nonetheless be a required element where the underlying felony requires proof of such an intent. See Commonwealth v. Waters, 491 Pa. 85, 418 A.2d 312 (1980); Commonwealth v. Allen, 475 Pa. 165, 379 A.2d 1335 (1977); Commonwealth v. McNeal, 456 Pa. 394, 319 A.2d 669; Commonwealth v. Yuknavich, 448 Pa. 502, 295 A.2d 290 (1972); Commonwealth v. Myers, 438 Pa. 218, 261 A.2d 550 (1970). In this case the underlying felony was robbery which does require a specific intent. 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3701, 3921.
B.
As previously noted, the appellant should have been permitted to establish by proper evidence that he did not have *320the mental capacity to form the intent to deprive required by the crime of robbery. See part I.
Appellant also asserts that even if he did have the capacity to form the requisite intent, the decision to take the victim’s property was an “afterthought.” This argument focuses upon when that intention was formed. It is not, as implicitly suggested by appellant, a question of the capacity to form the intent.
I have previously expressed my view that it does not matter when the intent to take the property of the victim occurs; it becomes a felony murder when the deadly force is used to accomplish the theft. Commonwealth v. Butcher, 451 Pa. 359, 304 A.2d 150 (1973); see Commonwealth v. Tomlinson, 446 Pa. 241, 284 A.2d 687 (1971); Commonwealth v. Waters, 445 Pa. 534, 285 A.2d 192 (1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 961, 92 S.Ct. 2073, 32 L.Ed.2d 348 (1972); Commonwealth v. Wilson, 431 Pa. 21, 244 A.2d 734 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1102, 89 S.Ct. 901, 21 L.Ed.2d 794 (1969); Commonwealth v. Hart, 403 Pa. 652, 170 A.2d 850, cert. denied, 368 U.S. 881, 82 S.Ct. 130, 7 L.Ed.2d 81 (1961); Commonwealth v. Stelma, 327 Pa. 317, 192 A. 906 (1937). This view is based upon sound policy which recognizes the difficulty in attempting to ascertain when the intent to commit the underlying felony was conceived in any given factual situation. I continue to believe that where the killing was used to effectuate the robbery it is unnecessary to inquire as to whether the intent to kill preceded the intent to rob since the force resulting in death is the force used to accomplish the robbery. Commonwealth v. Butcher, supra2
III.
Moreover, I cannot accept the view that psychiatric testimony should not be permitted to negate specific intent of *321any crime requiring such an element. When the legislature defines a crime by requiring a specific intent, that intent becomes an element which must be established to show that the crime has been committed. Commonwealth v. Rose, 457 Pa. 380, 321 A.2d 880 (1974); Commonwealth v. Bonomo, 396 Pa. 222, 151 A.2d 441 (1959). Any evidence which is competent and relevant is generally admissible. Commonwealth v. Jones, 459 Pa. 62, 327 A.2d 10 (1974); Commonwealth v. McCusker, 448 Pa. 382, 292 A.2d 286 (1972); see Commonwealth v. Lippert, 454 Pa. 381, 311 A.2d 586 (1973). Where the evidence would tend to establish or to negate the existence of a specific intent required by the offense it would be relevant. Thus if competent evidence had been offered to establish appellant’s mental incapacity to form a specific intent, it unquestionably would have been relevant where the crime charged is robbery, which requires such a specific intent. See Commonwealth v. Walzack, supra; Commonwealth v. Terry, supra.
The only remaining justification for excluding psychiatric testimony offered for this purpose would be that the competency of such evidence is suspect. That unenlightened view, however, has long since been discarded by this Court. E.g., Commonwealth v. Walzack, supra; Commonwealth v. Jones, supra; Commonwealth v. Light, 458 Pa. 328, 326 A.2d 288 (1974); Commonwealth v. McCusker, supra; Commonwealth v. Woodhouse, 401 Pa. 242, 164 A.2d 98 (1960); Commonwealth v. Scovern, 292 Pa. 26, 140 A. 611 (1927). Any attempt to create additional criteria for the admissibility of psychiatric evidence would represent an anachronistic regression in our thinking. Courts cannot properly substitute their prejudices as to the reliability of this area of medicine in the face of its acceptance by society’s recognized authorities in the field.

. Second degree murder is defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 2502 as follows:
(b) Murder of the second degree. — A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the second degree when it is committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony.
Robbery is defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 3701 as follows:
(a)(1) A person is guilty of robbery if, in the course of committing a theft, he:
(v) physically takes or removes property from the person of another by force however slight.
(2) An act shall be deemed "in the course of committing a theft" if it occurs in an attempt to commit theft or in flight after the attempt or commission. (Emphasis added.)
Theft by unlawful taking or disposition is defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 3921 as:
(a) Movable property. — A person is guilty of theft if he unlawfully takes, or exercises unlawful control over, movable property of another with intent to deprive him thereof. (Emphasis added.)

. I realize that the Court reached a contrary conclusion in Commonwealth v. Legg, 491 Pa. 78, 417 A.2d 1152 (1980). After careful consideration I am convinced the Court was in error in departing from the standard set forth in Commonwealth v. Butcher, 451 Pa. 359, 304 A.2d 150 (1973), and the numerous cases upon which it relied.