Commonwealth v. Robins

OPINION ANNOUNCING JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

Justice CAPPY1

This Court allowed appeal to consider whether the trial court properly overruled Appellant’s Sixth Amendment objection to the admission of non-custodial, extrajudicial statements of a non-testifying accomplice based upon the position that, as declarations against penal interest, the statements were sufficiently reliable to satisfy Confrontation Clause mandates. For the reasons that follow we find that the trial court erred in admitting the hearsay statements of the accomplice over Appellant’s Sixth Amendment objections.

The factual and…