Court Opinion

ID: 9541447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:25:32.726731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:53.117088
License: Public Domain

*528ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Justice Jackson has observed:
“The naive assumption that prejudicial effects can be overcome by instructions to the jury ... all practicing lawyers know to be unmitigated fiction.”
Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 453, 69 S.Ct. 716, 723, 93 L.Ed. 790 (1949) (Jackson, J., dissenting). If ever there were a case where Justice Jackson’s observation was dispositive, surely this is the case. Appellant was on trial in part for the crime of burglarizing the very residence involved in the previous burglary to which the witness had referred. Even the most carefully drawn cautionary instruction could not have cured this obvious prejudice. Although the witness’s regrettable reference was in no respect induced by the prosecuting attorney, still the fact remains that the remark irremediably deprived appellant of a fair trial.
I dissent and would grant appellant a new trial.
WILKINSON, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.
NIX, Justice, dissenting.
I dissent.
The challenged testimony elicited from the defense witness was not only clearly prejudicial but was also of such a nature that it could not be cured by the court’s subsequent instructions.
There is no question that the reference to the prior burglary was improperly placed before the jury. As the majority concedes, the situation presented here does not fall within any of the recognized exceptions where evidence of a defendant’s prior criminal conduct may be introduced as substantive evidence of guilt of a crime for which he is being tried. Commonwealth v. Adams, 476 Pa. 91, 381 A.2d 882 (1977); Commonwealth v. Stoltzfus, 462 Pa. 43, 337 A.2d 873 (1975); Commonwealth v. Allen, 448 Pa. 177, 292 A.2d 373 (1973).
*529Moreover, the prejudicial aspect of this testimony was exacerbated because it was elicited from a defense witness obviously favorable to appellant. The witness bore a relationship of brother to the defendant. Additionally, the prior offense related to a burglary of the same premises in which the burglary, robbery and murder for which appellant was then on trial was alleged to have occurred. Under these circumstances, it is clear that the prejudicial impact could not be removed by an instruction from the court to ignore the testimony. Commonwealth v. Williams, 470 Pa. 172, 368 A.2d 249 (1977); Commonwealth v. Fortune, 464 Pa. 367, 346 A.2d 783 (1975); Commonwealth v. Durant, 268 Pa.Super. 191, 407 A.2d 1311 (1979).