# Commonwealth v. Hoskins

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · July 5, 1979 · 485 Pa. 542

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9535598

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. William HOSKINS, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** July 5, 1979
- **Citations:** 485 Pa. 542; 403 A.2d 521; 1979 Pa. LEXIS 621
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Roberts
- **Judges:** Eagen, O'Brien, Roberts, Nix, Manderino, Larsen
- **Cited by:** 35 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9535598

## Opinion text

ROBERTS, Justice,
Concurring.
I join in the Opinion of the Court. “The naive assumption that prejudicial effects can be overcome by instructions to the jury, cf. Blumenthal v. United States, 332 U.S. 539, 559 , 68 S.Ct. 248, 257 , 92 L.Ed. 154 , 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., joined by Frankfurter & Murphy, JJ., concurring). This case amply demonstrates that what Justice Jackson said in 1949 applies today, thirty years later, with full force.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9535598. Public record. Not legal advice.