holding that the fact the victim was strangled to death with her legs spread apart and her clothing torn from her body, combined with spermatozoa found inside her vagina, constituted sufficient evidence to support a jury finding that she had been raped
How later courts described this case
- holding that the fact the victim was strangled to death with her legs spread apart and her clothing torn from her body, combined with spermatozoa found inside her vagina, constituted sufficient evidence to support a jury finding that she had been raped
- admission of single larceny conviction
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
“A determination under [Commonwealth v. Bighum, 452 Pa. 554 , 307 A.2d 255 (1973)] that an offense does not ‘involve dishonesty or false statement’ requires its absolute exclusion as a basis for impeachment.” Commonwealth v. Roots, 482 Pa. 33 , 38-39 n. 3, 393 A.2d 364 , 366 n. 3 (1978). Even though nothing on this record indicates that appellant’s previous larceny conviction involved dishonesty or false statement, the majority finds nothing improper in the introduction of this prior conviction. I dissent.