Commonwealth v. Knight, M., Aplt., 702 CAP

Melvin Knight was sentenced to death; this opinion is Justice Mundy’s dissent from the Court’s decision to vacate the death sentence and order a new penalty hearing.
At penalty phase, the contested mitigator was under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(1): whether Knight had a "significant history of prior criminal convictions."
The Commonwealth refused to stipulate to the mitigator; detective Vernail testified about Knight’s criminal history (showing no prior convictions at time of offense) and counsel argued about that evidence in closing.
The jury heard the testimony, was instructed that counsel’s arguments are not evidence (except stipulations), and declined to find the § 9711(e)(1) mitigator but found the catchall mitigator and two aggravators (felony murder and torture), returning a death verdict.
The majority vacated and awarded a new penalty hearing based on precedent (Rizzuto); Justice Mundy dissented, arguing Rizzuto does not apply absent a stipulation and that the jury properly exercised fact‑finding discretion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Rizzuto requires a jury to find a mitigating circumstance when evidence is uncontradicted but not stipulated	Commonwealth (plaintiff) relied on majority view applying Rizzuto to treat uncontradicted evidence as requiring finding of mitigator	Knight (defendant) argued jury discretion permitted rejection of the mitigator absent a stipulation; Rizzuto limited to stipulations	Dissent: Rizzuto applies only to stipulations; absent stipulation jury may reject evidence and is sole judge of mitigators
Whether a prosecutor’s closing argument can operate as a concession binding the jury to find a mitigator	Commonwealth argued prosecutor’s comment effectively conceded the uncontradicted criminal history, supporting required finding	Knight argued closing argument is not evidence and cannot bind the jury	Dissent: Closing argument is not evidence; cannot convert argument into a binding concession
Whether the jury’s failure to find § 9711(e)(1) mitigator made the death sentence arbitrary and capricious	Knight contended the failure was arbitrary given the evidence	Commonwealth and trial court argued the jury weighed evidence and verdict was within its province	Dissent: Not arbitrary; jury found two aggravators and weighed mitigators; Court should not substitute its judgment for jury’s

Commonwealth v. Rizzuto, 777 A.2d 1069 (Pa. 2001) (holds that a mitigating circumstance presented to the jury by stipulation must be treated as proven)
Commonwealth v. Diamond, 83 A.3d 119 (Pa. 2013) (crediting that credibility determinations are for the factfinder)
Commonwealth v. Johnson, 668 A.2d 97 (Pa. 1995) (closing argument is not evidence)
Commonwealth v. Reyes, 963 A.2d 436 (Pa. 2009) (Supreme Court’s authority to vacate death sentence is limited by § 9711(h)(3))
Commonwealth v. Walter, 966 A.2d 560 (Pa. 2009) (jury may reject mitigating evidence; sentencing weighing is for the jury)
Commonwealth v. Ballard, 80 A.3d 380 (Pa. 2013) (catchall mitigator is subjective and determinations rest with the factfinder)
Commonwealth v. Treiber, 874 A.2d 26 (Pa. 2005) (jury discretion to reject mitigating evidence)