Court Opinion

ID: 9650852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:53:20.062439+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:03.411301
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant has been convicted of murder of the second degree and stands subject to a judgment of sentence of life imprisonment. Appellant claims, and the record establishes, that appellant’s counsel at his jury trial noticeably demonstrated signs of alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, a majority of this Court now affirms the judgment of sentence of life imprisonment received as a result of this representation. The Court thus, with a single stroke, fails to accord appellant his basic constitutional right to counsel and renigs on its obligation to protect the dignity and integrity of our courts of criminal justice. I cannot join in this action.
The United States Constitution, Amends. VI & XIV, and our Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. I, § 9, both guarantee to the criminally accused the right to the assistance of counsel. These provisions envision that counsel “shall have the opportunity [to] and in fact discharge the responsibilities required by his representation.” Commonwealth v. Fiero, 462 Pa. 409, 413, 341 A.2d 448, 450 (1975). In any case where defense counsel so exhibits signs of drinking as to prompt an on the record rebuke by the trial judge, these constitutional guarantees plainly have not been fulfilled. The trial court’s displeasure with defense counsel is evident and, if the smell of alcohol was sufficiently powerful to prompt the court’s notice and disapproval, it is not unreasonable to believe that it was perceptible to some or all of the jurors. Aside from *25the obvious danger that appellant’s right to zealous representation has been compromised, the potential for prejudice in such a circumstance is substantial. In my view, every citizen is entitled to representation free from such unnecessary dangers. Surely the trial court erred in permitting trial to continue in such circumstances. Accordingly I would now allow appellant the opportunity to be retried under less prejudicial conditions and in a manner more in keeping with the solemn demands of our system of criminal justice.
In addition, the closing remarks of the district attorney, as set forth in the majority opinion, were clearly improper and prejudicial. The prosecutor’s description of the present crime as “an attack on our very system,” was plainly designed to lead the jury to ignore the specific question of guilt or innocence in pursuit of some broader social judgment, and the prosecutor’s lament that the victims of the crime would “never be able to be brought into the light of this world,” is precisely the type of appeal to passion and unreason which this Court has always held impermissible. Cf. Commonwealth v. Black, 480 Pa. 394, 390 A.2d 750 (1978). On this ground as well appellant is entitled to a new trial.