Court Opinion

ID: 9760112
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:40:36.490954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:08.348054
License: Public Domain

O’BRIEN, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I would affirm the Superior Court’s Order granting appellant a new trial on the basis of that court’s comprehensive discussion concerning the two color slides which were shown to the jury. Commonwealth v. McCutchen, 274 Pa.Superior Ct. 96, 417 A.2d 1270 (1979). I am compelled, however, to respond to one portion of the majority’s analysis.
The majority states:
“To permit the disturbing nature of the images of the victim to rule the question of admissibility would result in exclusion of all photographs of the homicide victim, and would defeat one of the essential functions of a criminal trial, inquiry into the intent of the actor. There is no need to so overextend an attempt to sanitize the evidence of the condition of the body as to deprive the Commonwealth of opportunities of proof in support of the overous burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
(At 549). It has long been settled in this Commonwealth that the specific intent to kill may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon on a vital part of the victim’s body. Commonwealth v. Tempest, 496 Pa. 436, 437 A.2d 952 (1981); Commonwealth v. Heller, 369 Pa. 457, 87 A.2d 287 (1952); Commonwealth v. Greene, 227 Pa. 86, 75 A. 1024 (1910). In the instant case, the testimony of the medical examiner that the victim was repeatedly beaten on the head with a blunt instrument was sufficient to establish the requisite specific intent to kill for a conviction of murder of the first degree.
I dissent.