Commonwealth v. Harley

MONTGOMERY, Judge:

Appellant, Robert J. Harley, was convicted by a jury of murder and related offenses arising from the shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer. Post-trial motions were filed and denied by the lower court, which imposed concurrent prison terms of ten to twenty years for murder in the third degree, five to ten years for aggravated assault, and two and a half to five years for possession of an instrument of crime. This direct appeal followed.

The record shows that on October 20, 1975, the decedent, Officer Artimus Johnson, and his partner, Officer Richard Smith, were…