Bennington v. Commonwealth

I concur in most all of the majority opinion. However, I take strong exception to this Court’s affirming the conviction and sentence on Count One to the 1974 crime. I recognize that, in this case, it will not substantially affect the ultimate sentence. However, I firmly believe that the serious flaw in the Court’s reasoning will bode ill in future cases.

Actually, the majority’s handling of this narrow issue strikes me as being unusual and bordering on the bizarre. We hold today that a trial judge can change one criminal charge to another after a person has been tried on the first charge.

This…