Court Opinion

ID: 9747770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:33:07.027122+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:26.851539
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Musmanno:
The Trial Judge in this case is one of the most able and experienced jurists in our Commonwealth, and it is not with the slightest reflection on his great ability and splendid record on the bench that I find it necessary to dissent from my brethren in the disposition of the writ before us here.
I believe that when the defendant at the hearing before the Judge told a story which, if accepted as fact, would acquit him not only of second degree murder but of any criminal offense at all, his plea should have been changed to not guilty and the case ordered to trial before a jury. It is quite possible that in that event the defendant would have fared much worse than he did before the judge, so that in point of objectivity the defendant benefitted rather than lost by the action of the judge. Nonetheless I believe that a disturbing precedent can,be established in accepting a plea of guilty on a narrative which completely negates guilt.