Commonwealth v. Maxwell

*157OPINION

McDermott, justice.

The appellant here appeals from a sentence of death.1 If the facts alleged and resolved by the jury are legally predicated, they depict a “wickedness of disposition, a hardness of heart and recklessness of consequence,” that are the very name and nature of murder. With the announced intention of robbery and “killing if necessary,” appellant lured an encyclopedia salesman to his home. The victim came, hoping to show his books to a concerned and loving father. As he sat in appellant’s home, he knew not the frigid cruelty that was to engulf him. He knew not that on the…