Court Opinion

ID: 9710859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:19:15.53652+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:22:37.457025
License: Public Domain

BROSKY, Judge,
dissenting.
Consistent with my Dissenting Opinion in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 336 Pa.Super. 1, 485 A.2d 397 (1984), I respectfully dissent. I believe that Commonwealth v. Pounds, 490 Pa. 621, 417 A.2d 597 (1980), is controlling. Our Supreme Court stated in Pounds that, “[T]he trial *475court failed to instruct the jury that it should acquit if Pounds’ alibi evidence, even if not wholly believed, raised a reasonable doubt of his presence at the scene of the crime at the time of its commission and, thus, of his guilt.” Id., 490 Pa. at 633, 417 A.2d at 603 (citations omitted) (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). The omission of the phrase “even if not wholly believed” from an alibi charge may cause a jury to believe that reasonable doubt does not exist since the jury did not wholly believe a defendant’s alibi testimony.