Commonwealth v. Petrillo

Over the defendant’s objection at his jury trial on six counts of aggravated rape, kidnapping, and other related crimes,1 the trial judge permitted sixteen minutes of commercial, hard-core, pornographic videotapes to be shown to the jury. After a five-day trial, the defendant was convicted of single counts of aggravated rape, kidnapping, and having threatened to *105commit a crime.2,3 He was acquitted on all other charges. On appeal, the defendant argues that the showing of the videotapes constituted prejudicial error that denied him a fair trial. Although we agree that the videotapes should not…