Commonwealth v. Clark

HOFFMAN, Judge:

Appellant contends that the lower court erred in disallowing evidence of prison conditions to establish a defense to the charge of escape. We disagree and, accordingly, affirm the judgment of sentence.

On May 29, 1978, seven inmates, including appellant, used hooks and ropes to climb through a skylight and over a wall and escape from Holmesburg Prison in Northeast Philadelphia. Later that evening appellant and his fellow escapees robbed three men of approximately $1,000 at a tire store several blocks from the prison. The seven then fled the scene in a van which belonged to one…