Commonwealth v. Leamer

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Pomeroy,

Appellant was convicted in 1958 following a jury trial of the 1955 first degree murder of his 92-year-old grandfather, Samuel Jacob Learner, and sentence was fixed at life imprisonment. After the jury returned its verdict, appellant’s counsel made an oral motion for a new trial, which was withdrawn immediately prior to sentencing. In 1970, we reversed the dismissal of appellant’s 1968 Post Conviction Hearing Act1 petition and held, based upon our decision in Commonwealth v. Littlejohn, 433 Pa. 336, 250 A. 2d 811 (1969), that Learner’s waiver of the right to…