No. 188 March Term, 1977, No. 277 March Term, 1977, Appeals from Judgments of Sentence of the Court of Common Pleas, Criminal Division, of Allegheny County, at No. CC7405323A and CC7406691A of 1974
Lester G. Nauhaus, John H. Corbett, Jr., Asst. Public Defenders, Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Robert E. Colville, Dist. Atty., Robert L. Eberhardt, Charles W. Johns, Asst. Dist. Attys., Pittsburgh, for appellee.
Eagen, C. J., and O'Brien, Roberts, Pomeroy, Nix, Manderino and Larsen, JJ. Pomeroy, J., filed a dissenting opinion in which Larsen, J., joins. Eagen, C. J., dissents.
Appellant, Clarence Greene, a/k/a Sonny Greene, was tried by a judge sitting without a jury in connection with the robbery and homicide of Catherine Johnson in McKeesport, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Appellant was adjudged guilty of murder of the second degree and robbery.*fn1 Post-verdict motions were denied. Appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment for his conviction of murder of the second degree. The judgment of sentence for the robbery conviction was suspended. Appellant filed a direct appeal to this court from the judgment of sentence imposed for the murder of the second degree conviction. He appealed the judgment of sentence imposed on his robbery conviction to Superior Court, which certified that appeal to our court for disposition.
Appellant argues that he did not knowingly waive his right to a jury trial. In Commonwealth v. Williams, 454 Pa. 368, 312 A.2d 597 (1973), we held that three essential elements must be included in every jury waiver colloquy. As we stated:
". . . These essential ingredients, basic to the concept of a jury trial, are the requirements that a jury be chosen from members of the community (a jury of one's
peers), that the verdict be unanimous, and that the accused be allowed to participate in the selection of the jury panel. . . ." Id., 454 Pa. at 373, 600, 312 A.2d at 600.
In the instant case, appellant was never informed by the trial court that the verdict had to be unanimous. As the trial court ignored the clear mandate of both Pa.R.Crim.P. 1101 ...