# Commonwealth v. Batty

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · October 27, 1978 · 482 Pa. 173

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9650143

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Warner BATTY, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** October 27, 1978
- **Citations:** 482 Pa. 173; 393 A.2d 435; 1978 Pa. LEXIS 1085
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Manderino
- **Judges:** Eagen, O'Brien, Roberts, Pomeroy, Nix, Manderino, Larsen
- **Cited by:** 36 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/9650143

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- explaining the rationale for this presumption

## Opinion text

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority proceeds on the false assumption that judges have control of their emotions superior to laymen. The majority states, “[wjhile the photographs instantly may have been deemed inflammatory, ... a judge, as the trier of fact, possesses the training, skill, and experience to enable him to view such photographs in a manner so as to preclude prejudicial opinions based on emotion.” (at 178). I must emphatically disagree. Judges receive training in the procedures of fairness but I know of no judge who was trained in law school — if indeed, one ever could be — in *184 how to react more fairly to inflammatory stimuli than other adult individuals. Commonwealth v. Green, 464 Pa. 557, 566 , 347 A.2d 682, 686 (1975) (Manderino, J., dissenting opinion.)

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9650143. Public record. Not legal advice.