Court Opinion

ID: 9718175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:18:12.398151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:57.811318
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. A defendant is entitled to a specific alibi instruction where evidence of an alibi is introduced. Com*167monwealth v. Bonomo, 396 Pa. 222, 151 A.2d 441 (1959). Alibi is defined as “a defense that places the defendant at the relevant time in a different place than the scene involved and so removed therefrom as to render it impossible for him to be the guilty party." Commonwealth v. Whiting, 409 Pa. 492, 494, 187 A.2d 563, 566 (1963) (emphasis added).
The testimony of appellee, in the case herein, that he was a mere four blocks away when the crimes occurred establishes that he was not so far removed from the crime scene “as to render it impossible for him to be the guilty party.” Because of his admitted proximity to the scene involved, appellee could easily have committed the crimes and then returned to the bar in time for closing. Appellee’s testimony amounts to nothing more than a general denial of guilt. He did not present evidence of an alibi as defined in Whiting, and thus he was not entitled to an alibi instruction.
Accordingly, I would reverse the Order of the Superior Court, which reversed and remanded for a new trial.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.