Court Opinion

ID: 9650143
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:25:50.171828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:04.814087
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority proceeds on the false assumption that judges have control of their emotions superior to laymen. The majority states, “[wjhile the photographs instantly may have been deemed inflammatory, ... a judge, as the trier of fact, possesses the training, skill, and experience to enable him to view such photographs in a manner so as to preclude prejudicial opinions based on emotion.” (at 178). I must emphatically disagree. Judges receive training in the procedures of fairness but I know of no judge who was trained in law school — if indeed, one ever could be — in *184how to react more fairly to inflammatory stimuli than other adult individuals. Commonwealth v. Green, 464 Pa. 557, 566, 347 A.2d 682, 686 (1975) (Manderino, J., dissenting opinion.)