Court Opinion

ID: 9543578
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:46:44.493106+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:37.770381
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in the majority’s holding that the evidence was insufficient to show a malicious killing. The trial court’s finding that appellant was guilty of murder of the third degree, therefore, cannot stand. Because involuntary manslaughter is a lesser included offense of murder, see: Commonwealth v. Polimeni, 474 Pa. 430, 378 A.2d 1189 (1977), however, and because the trial court’s findings indicate that the degree of homicide in this case was involuntary manslaughter, I would reduce appellant’s offense to involuntary manslaughter and remand for resentencing.
This would not be contrary to principles of double jeopardy. Both the evidence and the trial court’s findings make it eminently clear that appellant was guilty of a criminal homicide. The trial court determined that appellant was guilty of murder of the third degree and not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Because involuntary manslaughter is merely a less culpable degree of homicide than murder of the third degree, the trial court’s finding of murder in the third degree was not equivalent to an acquittal of involuntary manslaughter. It was merely a finding that the degree of defendant’s culpability was greater than that required by the offense of involuntary manslaughter.
The trial court’s finding was incorrect. A majority of this Court has determined (and I agree) that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of murder of the third degree. The evidence upon which the trial court based its verdict demonstrated not a killing with malice but a killing which was a direct result of reckless or grossly negligent conduct. See: 18 Pa.C.S. § 2504(a). Therefore, a reviewing court, without violating principles of double jeopardy, can reduce appellant’s *417degree of guilt from murder of the third degree to involuntary manslaughter.