Categories: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Opinions

COMMONWEALTH v. BROWN, 582 Pa. 669 (2005)

868 A.2d 1196

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Petitioner v. TERRY BROWN a/k/a ANTONIO LAMBERT, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District.
January 13, 2005.

No. 444 EAL 2004, Petition for Allowance of Appeal from the Order of the Superior Court.

ORDER
PER CURIAM.

AND NOW, this 13th day of January 2005, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED. The parties are directed to brief the following questions: (1) whether the rule set forth in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968) and its progeny dictates that in a joint trial, the proper redaction of a non-testifying co-defendant’s out-of-court statement is negated in whole or in part by a prosecutor’s improper reference to the statement in closing argument; (2) whether, in such an instance, cautionary/curative instructions to the jury may ever be adequate to remove the potential for prejudice from the prosecutor’s reference; and (3) whether the Superior Court erred in holding that the trial court abused its discretion in denying severance of the trials in this case.

The Prothonotary is directed to list this case for argument during the same session as the appeal in Commonwealth v. Garcia, No. 46 EAP 2004 (allocatur granted September 17, 2004).

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