Court Opinion

ID: 9752725
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:30:59.740628+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:21.409583
License: Public Domain

concurring and dissenting:
I agree that the evidence as to “jumping parole” was unduly prejudicial and warrants the grant of a new trial for the appellant Murphy. In my view, however, it is illogical to grant a new trial to Murphy and to affirm the judgment of sentence of Brunner.
Under the Commonwealth’s evidence, both Murphy and Brunner were co-actors in the burglary. The primary evidence against both defendants was rooted in the testimony of Alice Maxwell. Neither defendant chose to testify following the lower court’s denial of their pre-trial motions to suppress their prior criminal convictions and therefore no evidence of their prior criminal convictions was admitted into evidence. In actual fact, however, the jury had before it additional evidence upon which to rely in convicting Murphy. The Commonwealth presented the physical evidence that the victim’s stolen jewelry box was found in Murphy’s residence.
In addition, albeit improperly, the jury had before it that Murphy had “jumped parole.” To determine that this single piece of improperly admitted evidence entitles Maxwell to a new trial and at the same time affirm the conviction of Brunner, which was based solely upon the testimony of Ms. Maxwell, is in my opinion illogical since it is totally unrealistic to assume that the taint of the Murphy evidence, that both properly and improperly admitted, did not carry over to his co-defendant’s criminal liability in the eyes of the jury.