Court Opinion

ID: 9646383
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:58:33.421353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:37.772857
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The prosecutor’s comment to the jury during closing argument which is alleged to have been prejudicial wherein he stated the following, was proper.
“Now ladies and gentlemen, the doctor made a very, very big mistake. And, ladies and gentlemen, he paid for that mistake. Unfortunately, in this day and age we have to say it was a mistake. His mistake was a natural mistake to all of us, a mistake borne out of rage, a mistake which is borne out of surprise, he fought back. He resisted. He said I will not be robbed and he struggled with a vicious, desperate criminal who would kill for a nickel in this struggle . . . .” (Emphasis added.)
The fact is, whoever committed this crime upon the deceased was “a vicious, desperate criminal who would kill for a nickel”. The reference was not specifically to the defendant. Further, as we stated in the case of Commonwealth v. Stoltzfus, 462 Pa. 43, 61, 337 A.2d 873, 882 (1975):
“. . . [Ejven where the language of the district attorney is intemperate, uncalled for and improper, a new trial is not necessarily required. Commonwealth v. Crittenton, 326 Pa. 25, 31, 191 A. 358 (1937); Commonwealth v. McHugh, 187 Pa.Super. 568, 577, 145 A.2d 896 (1958). The language must be such that its ‘unavoidable effect *83would be to prejudice the jury, forming in their minds fixed bias and hostility toward the defendant, so that they could not weigh the evidence and render a true verdict.’ Commonwealth v. Simon, 432 Pa. 386, 394, 248 A.2d 289, 292 (1968). See also, Commonwealth v. Myers [sic], 290 Pa. 573, 139 A. 374 (1927). The effect of such remarks depends upon the atmosphere of the trial, Commonwealth v. Dickerson, 406 Pa. 102, 110, 176 A.2d 421 (1962); Commonwealth v. Del Giorno, 303 Pa. 509, 519, 154 A. 786 (1931), and the proper action to be taken is within the discretion of the trial court.”
Assuming, in the present case, that there was something prejudicial, in the abstract, about the prosecutor’s statement, the jury obviously wasn’t affected by it because the jury found the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter as opposed to murder.
NIX, J., joins in this Dissenting Opinion.