Commonwealth V. Begley

On July 18, 1996, a jury found Appellant James William Begley guilty of the kidnapping and first-degree murder of Erica Miller. Following a penalty phase hearing, the jury found one aggravating circumstance, that the murder was committed during the course of a felony (kidnapping), *fn1 and two mitigating circumstances, that Appellant had no significant history of prior convictions, *fn2 and that he acted under the influence of an extreme mental or emotional disturbance. *fn3 After weighing the aggravating circumstance against the two mitigating circumstances, the jury concluded that the former outweighed the latter. Accordingly, the jury returned a verdict of death against Appellant. On August 26, 1996, the trial court formally imposed the death sentence against Appellant. *fn4 Appellant subsequently filed post sentence motions with the trial court, which the trial court denied on January 6, 1997. This direct appeal followed. *fn5 We now affirm Appellant's convictions for kidnapping and first-degree murder, but reverse the sentence of death and remand the case for a new penalty hearing.