COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. TERI RHODES

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. TERI RHODES No. 143 WDA 2009 2009 PA Super 261 Atlantic: n/a Filed: 12/31/2009
	Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence entered November 21, 2008 In the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County Criminal Division at No. CP-25-CR-0000110-2008
Before: FORD ELLIOTT, P.J., ORIE MELVIN and BENDER, JJ.
Opinion by: BENDER, J.
Teri Rhodes appeals the judgment of sentence imposed following her entry of an open plea of guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2503(a), in the death of her infant daughter by neonaticide. Rhodes contends that the sentence imposed, of nine to eighteen years’ incarceration, was manifestly excessive and the trial judge was motivated in imposing sentence by a pronounced bias that should have compelled him to recuse. Upon review, we concur in Rhodes’s assessment. Because the record of these proceedings establishes that the trial judge acted substantially in derogation of the Pennsylvania Sentencing Code on the basis of evidence gathered ex parte, we conclude that the sentence imposed constitutes an abuse of discretion. We conclude further that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to grant Rhodes’s request for recusal. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of sentence and remand this matter for re-sentencing before another jurist.

-----------------------------------------------------
Want 50 state & federal case law? - click here