Wilson v. Commonwealth

Opinion

BENTON, J.

This appeal by Rolando Wilson raises the question whether the trial judge’s statement to the jury that defense counsel had moved to disqualify all jurors on the panel sufficiently tainted the jury so as to render it incapable of being fair and impartial. We conclude that it did.

Wilson was indicted on charges of murder in the first degree, attempted murder in the first degree, and robbery. Immediately prior to the commencement of the trial the Commonwealth moved to amend the murder indictment to charge murder during the commission of a robbery. The trial judge granted the…