Opinion

Commonwealth v. Brown

  • 492 Pa. 320
  • 424 A.2d 1211
  • 1981 Pa. LEXIS 662
Court
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Filed
Feb 4, 1981
Status
Published
Author
Kauffman
On the bench
O'Brien, Roberts, Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, Kauffman
Cited by
2 cases

The opinion

KAUFFMAN, Justice,

dissenting.

Although the defendant has no obligation to establish his previous good reputation, when he chooses to open up the question of his character, the prosecutor may fairly comment upon the evidence offered. Here, defendant introduced only one character witness, a family friend. By noting the witness’s bias and by adverting to the weakness of the evidence presented in light of the testimony not offered, the prosecutor’s closing argument properly challenged the adequacy of defendant’s attempt to establish his good reputation. Since I do not find the prosecutor’s closing argument to have constituted prosecutorial misconduct, I would affirm the Judgments of Sentence.

LARSEN, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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