Legal Opinion
Commonwealth v. Scott
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Decided October 29, 1981No. 80-1-83PublishedCited by 15 opinions
1Opinion of the Court
OPINION
KAUFFMAN, Justice.
The sole issue presented by this appeal is whether a trial court may exclude the relevant testimony of a defense witness in a criminal trial solely because of that witness’ apparently inadvertent violation of a sequestration order. Because less extreme remedies were available, we conclude that total exclusion of the defense witness’ testimony deprived appellant of fundamental constitutional rights and was a clear abuse of discretion. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of sentence and remand for a new trial.1
*81Appellant, Delgardo Scott, was charged with criminal…
2Cases cited19 opinions
- Washington v. TexasSupreme Court of the United States · 1967
- Holder v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United States · 1893
- Commonwealth v. WalzackSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1976
- Commonwealth v. GravesSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1975
- United States v. Carl D. SchaeferCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · 1962
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3Cited by15 opinions
- State v. JordanTennessee Supreme Court · 2010
- State v. BurkeSupreme Court of Rhode Island · 1987
- Webb v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas · 1989
- Commonwealth v. RobertsonSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 2005
- People v. MelendezSupreme Court of Colorado · 2004
10 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.