Commonwealth v. Lesher

OPINION OF THE COURT

EAGEN, Chief Justice.

On February 27, 1975, the appellant, Barry Lesher, was convicted by a jury of voluntary manslaughter for the killing of one Wayne Eisenhart. Post-verdict motions were denied and a sentence of four to eight years imprisonment was imposed. This direct appeal followed. Lesher advances several assignments of error in support of reversal of the judgment and the grant of a new trial. A new trial is required because the trial court’s charge to the jury failed to clearly assign to the Commonwealth the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt Lesher did not…