Court Opinion

ID: 9751312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:20:43.85041+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:42.671758
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice
(concurring).
*233Although I agree with the majority’s result in this case, I must disagree with the assertion that appellant’s proposed instruction was incorrectly framed. Appellant did not request an instruction that intoxication could negate malice. His only contention was that intoxication may negate the specific intent to kill necessary for a conviction of murder in the first degree. It is clear from the context of his proposed instruction that his reference to “hardness of heart” was not intended to refer to malice generally.*
Moreover, as the majority correctly concludes, the suggested instruction, even if erroneous, was sufficient to alert the trial court to the issue and thus preserve it for appellate review. Consequently, it is immaterial to this case whether the suggested instruction was precisely correct.
Because of this error, the majority incorrectly reaches the question whether intoxication may negate malice. This issue is not before the Court in this case and any discussion of it is therefore mere dictum.
NIX and MANDERINO, JJ., join in this concurring opinion.

 “Hardness of heart” does not adequately define malice and is of little use in the proper analysis of that legal concept. See Commonwealth v. Taylor, 461 Pa. 557, 564, 337 A.2d 545, 549 (1975) (concurring opinion of Roberts, J., joined by Jones, C. J., and Eagen and Manderino, JJ.); W. LaFave & A. Scott, Handbook on Criminal Law §§ 67-70 (1972).