Commonwealth v. Harris

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Kephart,

Robert Harris was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death.

Appellant asks us to reconsider the rule announced in numerous homicide cases that evidence, in proper form, of prior convictions of crime is admissible for the sole purpose of aiding the jury in determining the penalty to be inflicted if the jury finds defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. Counsel have restated persuasively the arguments against it, all of which we have considered in this and very many other cases. We have recently restated the rule giving reasons therefor…