Court Opinion

ID: 9753801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:29:56.608951+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:42.515948
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Justice O’Brien :
I concur in the result reached by the majority. Pa. R. Crim. P. 323(e) does indeed require that, after a determination in an evidentiary hearing that a confession is voluntary, the voluntariness of the confession be submitted to the jury. This procedure was not followed in the instant case.
However, this procedure is not mandated by Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S. Ct. 1774 (1964). Although Jackson required an independent pretrial evidentiary hearing, it left a choice as to the procedure to be followed thereafter. Either the orthodox (Wig-*546more) rule or the humane (Massachusetts) rule is permissible. Under the orthodox rule, the judge himself solely ánd finally determines the voluntariness of the confession, Jaclcson, supra, at page 378, and the jury considers voluntariness only as it affects the weight or credibility of the confession. Under the humane rule, If the judge finds the confession voluntary, the jury is then instructed that it must also find that the confession was voluntary before it may consider it. Jackson, supra, at page 417. Pennsylvania now follows the humane rule, as the Comment to Rule 323 makes clear: “While the Rule requires an advance determination by the court of the admissibility of a confession as an item of evidence at trial, if the court decides that the confession is admissible, the Rule does not change the present Pennsylvania law under which the issues of both voluntariness and credibility of a confession are submitted to the jury under appropriate instructions for determination of guilt.” (Emphasis added)