Lopinson v. Pennsylvania
| Decision Date | 01 October 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 1133,1133 |
| Parties | Jack LOPINSON v. PENNSYLVANIA. , |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
The motions for leave to proceed in forma pauperis in No. 1095, Misc., and No. 1700, Misc., are granted and the petitions for writs of certiorari in all three cases are granted. Without reaching the petitioners' other claims, the judgments are vacated and the cases remanded for reconsideration in the light of Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776.
Mr. Justice HARLAN dissents for the reasons stated in Mr. Justice Black's dissenting opinion in Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 532, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 1782, 20 L.Ed.2d 776.
Mr. Justice WHITE dissents for the reasons stated in his dissenting opinion in Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 540, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 1786, 20 L.Ed.2d 776.
In all three of these cases the Court remands to the state courts on one single constitutional claim of petitioners without reaching other constitutional claims raised by them. The result is that after the state courts rule on the single remand issue this Court will undoubtedly be called on to pass on the other issues which the Court refuses to decide. At the very least this means postponement of a final decision in these cases a year or two years or three years, unless, that is, this Court should, on the second review, choose once more to decide the cases piecemeal. Piecemeal dispositions of criminal cases inevitably cause delays and hamper enforcement of the criminal laws and there is a lot of truth in the old adage that delay is a defendant's best lawyer. See Witherspoon v. State of Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776, where a murder sentence was reversed nine years after...
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Com. v. Smith
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...to on direct examination Commonwealth v. Lopinson, 427 Pa. 284, 234 A.2d 552 (1967), vacated on other grounds, 392 U.S. 647, 88 S.Ct. 2277, 20 L.Ed.2d 1344 (1968). In Kaplan v. Loev, 327 Pa. 465, 194 A. 653 (1937), cert. denied, 302 U.S. 766, 58 S.Ct. 477, 82 L.Ed. 595, we cited 70 C.J.S. 8......
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...merit under our case law. Commonwealth v. Lopinson, 427 Pa. 284, 298, 234 A.2d 552 (1967), vacated on other grounds, 392 U.S. 647, 88 S.Ct. 2277, 20 L.Ed.2d 1344 (1968). ('The only legitimate inquiry in this area was whether or not the juror had formed a fixed opinion in the case as to the ......
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