Court Opinion

ID: 9747606
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:22:47.37505+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:24.860021
License: Public Domain

*389MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. In Commonwealth v. McCusker, 448 Pa. 382, 292 A.2d 286, 287 (1972), we noted:
“In the past century, psychiatry has evolved from tentative, hesitant gropings in the dark of human ignorance to a recognized and important branch of modern medicine.”
If we are willing to recognize the importance of psychological and psychiatric evidence, we should also be willing to present that evidence to the jury. If the evidence is offered to show that a defendant acted in the heat of passion or to show a defendant’s overall emotional makeup, the jury should be permitted to consider it in their deliberations of guilt.