Buckler v. Commonwealth

CLAYTON, Justice.

Stella Faye Buckler was indicted for the August 17, 1973, murder by suffocation of her two-month-old son, Brian Christopher Buckler. After a first trial resulted in a hung jury, a second jury was empanelled, returning a verdict of guilty and sentencing her to life imprisonment. Of the several assignments of error raised by the appellant, we find the contentions that the trial court erred in excluding her mental hospital records and in excluding expert opinion testimony regarding her mental condition based on those records to be meritorious, and, accordingly, we reverse the…