Degree-of-guilt Hearing • Proof of Intent • After-discovered Evidence • DNA Testing
Commonwealth v. Payne, PICS Case No. 17-1449 (Pa. Super. Sept. 7, 2017) Strassburger, J.; Moulton, J., dissenting (28 pages).
The trial court properly denied defendant relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act where the evidence was sufficient to support the specific intent element of his first-degree murder conviction and, thus, the newly-discovered DNA evidence establishing an absence of defendant’s semen in the victim’s body would not alter the outcome of a degree-of-fault hearing. The court affirmed defendant’s judgment of sentence.
