Commonwealth v. Carr
Pennsylvania Superior Court
580 A.2d 1362 (1990)
- Written by Craig Conway, LLM
Facts
Claudia Brenner and Rebecca Wight were hiking along the Appalachian Trail when they decided to camp for the night. While Brenner and Wight were engaged in lesbian lovemaking, both were shot multiple times. Wight died as a result of her wounds. Stephen Carr (defendant) later incriminated himself in the shooting. At a bench trial, Carr sought to introduce psychosexual evidence to show that he had shot Brenner and Wight in his heat of passion, which was caused by the provocation of their lovemaking. According to Carr’s evidence, he had a history of being constantly rejected by women, including his mother, and had been sexually abused while in a Florida prison. Carr also had an inability to hold a job, and had retreated to the mountains to avoid further rejection. The trial court denied Carr’s request to introduce the evidence. Carr was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Carr appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Wieand, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
