Court Opinion

ID: 9704907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:49:39.706632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:06.420080
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the majority’s decision to affirm the judgment of sentence. I write separately only to suggest my disagreement with the majority’s general statement that “[t]he admission or exclusion of evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court____” Although the same statement appears with increasing frequency in our opinions, I believe it is incorrect. To be sure, much must necessarily be left to the discretion of the court during the course of a trial. However, not all evidentiary rulings are discretionary with the trial court. Many rules of evidence are well established and do not permit a trial judge total discretion in his rulings. These include exclusionary rules whose enforcement cannot be ignored or violated in the trial court’s discretion. Such rules are those, inter alia, which exclude evidence which is hearsay, evidence which has been illegally obtained, evidence which is privileged, and evidence which violates the Dead Man’s Rule. In the instant case, it seems clear that the trial court’s evidentiary rulings were correct. The newspaper article contained hearsay; and the testimony that a witness had on one occasion mistaken appellant for someone else was irrelevant.
In all other respects, I join the majority’s opinion.