Commonwealth v. Hill

OPINION

ZAPPALA, Justice.

We allowed appeal in this matter to determine the propriety of permitting a defendant to cross-examine a prosecution witness as to his prior guilty plea for which sentence has yet to be imposed. The purpose of such questioning is to attempt to establish a possible prosecution bias in the witness due to the pendancy of sentence and the implied control the Commonwealth might exercise over that sentence if the witness’ testimony is not favorable to the prosecutor’s theory of the case. Both lower courts denied Appellant the use of such cross-examination, but for the…