Commonwealth v. Martin

OPINION

Justice McCAFFERY.

This is a direct appeal from a death sentence imposed after a jury convicted Appellant of one count of first-degree murder and other charges arising from the strangulation death of a twelve-year-old girl. The jury concluded, with respect to the circumstances of the murder, that the aggravating factors (committing murder to prevent testimony in a possible criminal proceeding regarding a felony and committing a killing in perpetration of a felony) outweighed the mitigating circumstances *712(“character and record”). Thus, the jury imposed a sentence of death.

The primary…