# Commonwealth v. Fisher

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · November 24, 1999 · 559 Pa. 558

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9762706

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robert FISHER, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** November 24, 1999
- **Citations:** 559 Pa. 558; 741 A.2d 1234; 1999 Pa. LEXIS 3497
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Nigro
- **Judges:** Flaherty, Zappala, Cappy, Castille, Nigro, Newman, Saylor
- **Cited by:** 27 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/9762706

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that even isolated references to evidence not of record will not necessarily be considered “so pervasive or deliberate so that the unavoidable effect thereof [is] to prejudice the jury to the point that they could not fairly weigh the evidence presented.”
- holding that, in a first-degree murder case, a defense witness testified that the defendant had a reputation of being kind and courteous and relating well with others while his counsel portrayed him as devoutly religious, a war hero and a model prisoner
- concluding that the prosecutor’s isolated reference to the victim’s family did not unfairly prejudice the jury

## Opinion text

NIGRO, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the Majority opinion, and write separately solely to reaffirm my position that a standardized Simmons instruction should be given in all capital cases for the reasons more fully explained in my concurring opinion in Commonwealth v. Clark, 551 Pa. 258 , 710 A.2d 31, 43-44 (1998)(Nigro, J., concurring).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9762706. Public record. Not legal advice.