Commonwealth v. Langley

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Commonwealth v. Langley, 363 A.2d 1126 (Pa. 1976)
468 Pa. 392; 1976 Pa. LEXIS 687
Jones, Eagen, O'Brien, Pome-Roy, Nix, Manderino, Roberts

Commonwealth v. Langley

Opinion of the Court

OPINION OF THE COURT

PER CURIAM.

Judgment of sentence affirmed.

ROBERTS, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case. MANDERINO, J., filed a dissenting opinion.

Dissenting Opinion

MANDERINO, Justice

(dissenting).

I dissent. The majority approves the ruling of the trial court which withheld from the jury evidence it should have been allowed to consider when determining the state of appellant’s mind at the time of the shooting. Appellant sought to have a psychiatrist express an opinion as to appellant’s state of mind at the time of the shooting. This opinion was based on the psychiatrist’s observations of appellant’s behavior while under an hypnotic trance induced by the psychiatrist. Once the witness was properly qualified to testify as to the experiment done on appellant, the evidence should have been put be*394fore the jury so that they, in their collective wisdom, could determine whether or not appellant’s action while in a hypnotic trance indicated that she did not possess the requisite intent to commit murder at the time she shot Robert Ham.

Reference

Full Case Name
COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Bessie Grace LANGLEY, Appellant
Cited By
1 case
Status
Published