Court Opinion

ID: 9762617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:27:20.689047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:35.797128
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting.
In Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 454 A.2d 937 (1982), this Court noted that “the testimony of [a] medically trained psychiatrist is preferable to that of the psychologist who has received no education in medicine.” Id,., 500 Pa. at 35 n. 8, 454 A.2d at 947 n. 8. We further noted that the competence of a psychologist to testify regarding insanity was still unresolved. See Commonwealth v. Terry, 513 Pa. 381, 394 n. 15, 521 A.2d 398, 405, n. 15 (1987). Thus, the comments which were made by the trial judge were not without foundation, in that he merely questioned the competence of the psychologist to testify, and stated what we have recognized as a fact, that a psychiatrist is more competent to testify than a psychologist. I think the trial judge would have been well within his bounds to have refused to allow this psychologist to testify at all; then we would only be concerned with whether that was an abuse of discretion. However, since the trial judge, despite his legitimate concerns, allowed the psychologist to testify, the Court is now saying he erred in voicing those concerns. I must dissent from this decision.
Similarly, I find no merit in the relatively innocuous decision to designate appellant’s witness as other than a doctor. The terms used instead, such as “expert”, “psychologist”, and “professional”, are certainly not terms of disrespect, and I do not believe that the judge’s omission of the term “doctor” affected the jury’s deliberation.
FLAHERTY, J., joins in this Dissenting Opinion.