455 Pa. 622 | Pa. | 1974
Lead Opinion
Addendum Opinion
On May 4, 1973, this Court reversed the several judgments of sentence in Commonwealth v. Campana, 452 Pa. 233, 304 A.2d 432 (1973).
Subsequently a petition for writ of certiorari was submitted to the United States Supreme Court. On October 9, 1973, the Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari, vacated this Court’s judgments, and remanded the causes in Campmta to us to consider whether our judgments were based on federa] or state grounds. Pennsylvania v. Campana, 414 U.S. 808, 94 S. Ct. 73 (1973). Accordingly, we file this per curiam addendum opinion.
There are, of course, indications in some of the opinions supporting our judgments that a basis for the judgments was to be found in federal constitutional problems. However, there are also separate reasons advanced for the result that do not stand on a view of federal constitutional requirements.
Our supervisory power over state criminal proceedings is broad,
This Court views our May 4, 1973 judgments in Campana as state law determinations pursuant to our supervisory powers.
The result this Court reached in Campana is entirely in harmony with section 110 of our Crimes Code, which became effective shortly after our decision and is now in effect. 18 Pa. S. §110 (1973) (effective June 6, 1973).
We reversed the judgments of sentence at No. 151 September Term, 1968, Lycoming County, No. 255 September Sessions, 1968, Berks County, and No. 520 April Sessions, 1969, Allegheny County, and affirmed the judgment of sentence at No. 325 October Sessions, 1968, Allegheny County.
Three justices joined the plurality opinion. Three justices concurred in the result, with two justices joining in one concurring opinion, and another justice filing a separate concurring opinion. A dissenting opinion was also filed.
See Pa. Const art V, § 10.
This Court in Commonwealth v. Mills, 447 Pa. 163, 286 A.2d 638 (1971), went beyond the minimum standard required by the federal constitution and held as a matter of state law that “in
In Commonwealth v. Blackman, 446 Pa. 61, 285 A.2d 521 (1971), we were asked to reconsider, in light of North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 91 S. Ct. 160 (1970), our earlier holding in Commonwealth v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 269 A.2d 709 (1970). Roundtree held that a defendant’s plea of guilty was not to be accepted as a knowing and voluntary act if the defendant also testifies to what is in effect a complete defense of the crime charged. We declined in Blackman to reconsider our earlier decision, because we believed that “[a]lthough our statement in Bound-tree may not be constitutionally required, we are still convinced of its wisdom.” Blackman, supra at 64, 285 A.2d at 522.
The issue in Commonwealth v. Ware, 446 Pa. 52, 284 A.2d 700 (1971), concerned the applicability of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602 (1966). In reaching our result we looked to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S. Ct. 1772 (1966), which held that Miranda applied to cases in which the trial began after the date of decision in Miranda. Our holding in Ware stated that “we are in agreement with the rationale of Johnson, and . . . affirm it as a matter of state law.” Ware, supra at 58, 284 A.2d at 703.
The United States Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in Ware on March 20, 1972. Pennsylvania v. Ware, 405 U.S. 987, 92 S. Ct. 1254 (1972). On April 24, 1972, the Supreme Court vacated its earlier order and denied the petition for a writ of certiorari, “it appearing that the judgment below rests upon an adequate state ground.” Pennsylvania v. Ware, 406 U.S. 910, 92 S. Ct. 3606 (1972).
The appellant in Commonwealth v. McIntyre, 417 Pa. 415, 208 A.2d 257 (1965), was granted a new trial because the Commonwealth employed for impeachment purposes the conviction records of four burglaries committed subsequent to the crime for which he was being tried. “We [did] not decide the claim on constitution
Section 110 of our Crimes Code sets forth the following standards:
“When prosecution barred by former prosecution for different offense
Although a prosecution is for a violation of a different provision of the statutes than a former prosecution or is based on different facts, it is barred by such former prosecution under the following circumstances:
(1) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal or in a conviction as defined in section 109 of this title (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for:
(i) any offense of which the defendant could have been convicted on the first prosecution;
(ii) any offense based on the same conduct or arising from the same criminal episode, if such offense was known to the appropriate prosecuting officer at the time of the commencement of the first trial and was within the jurisdiction of a single court unless the court ordered a separate trial of the charge of such offense; or
(iii) the same conduct, unless:
(A) the offense of which the defendant was formerly convicted or acquitted and the offense for which he is subsequently prosecuted each requires proof of a fact not required by the other and the law defining each of such offenses is intended to prevent a substantially different harm or evil; or
*627 (B) the second offense was not consummated when the former trial began.
(2) The former prosecution was terminated, after the indictment was found, by an acquittal or by a final order or judgment for the defendant which has not been set aside, reversed or vacated and which acquittal, final order or judgment necessarily required a determination inconsistent with a fact which must be established for conviction of the second offensa
(3) The former prosecution was improperly terminated, as improper termination is defined in Section 109 of this title (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for an offense of which the defendant could have been convicted had the former prosecution not been improperly terminated.” 18 Pa. S. § 110 (1973).
The definitions referred to in section 110 are provided by section 109.
“When prosecution barred by former prosecution for the same offense
When a prosecution is for a violation of the same provision of the statutes and is based upon the same facts as a former prosecution, it is barred by such former prosecution under the following circumstances:
(1) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal. There is an acquittal if the prosecution resulted in a finding of not guilty by the trier of fact or in a determination that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a conviction. A finding of guilty of a lesser included offense is an acquittal of the greater inclusive offense, although the conviction is subsequently set aside.
(2) The former prosecution was terminated, after the indictment had been found, by a final order or judgment for the defendant, which has not been set aside, reversed, or vacated and which necessarily required a determination inconsistent with a fact or a legal proposition that must be established for conviction of the offense.
(3) The former prosecution resulted in a conviction. There is a conviction if the prosecution resulted in a judgment of conviction which has not been reversed or vacated, a verdict of guilty which has not been set aside and which is capable of supporting a judgment, or a plea of guilty accepted by the court. In the latter two cases failure to enter judgment must be for a reason other than a motion of the defendant.
*628 (4) The former prosecution was improperly terminated after the first witness was sworn but before a verdict, or after a plea of guilty was accepted by the court.” Id. § 109.
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
As the sole dissenter to the decision of the Court entered on May 4, 1973, in these cases, Commonwealth v. Campana, 452 Pa. 233, 304 A. 2d 432 (1973), it is with diffidence that I presume again to disagree with the Court, this time in its statement as to the basis of the May 4th decision. The addendum opinion now filed, however, is so much at odds with what was said last year that I am obliged to register my dissent.
In the former plurality opinion by Mr. Justice Roberts, joined by Justices O’Brien and Manderino, the holding was thus stated: “We hold that all charges resulting from the criminal ‘episode’ of each appellant should have been consolidated at one trial, and, consequently the second prosecution violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment.” 452 Pa. at 239-40. (Footnote omitted.) There followed a lengthy exposition of that clause in light of decisions of the
In the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Eagex, joined by Mr. Chief Justice Jones, the issue before the Court was squarely put: “What does the constitutional phrase ‘same offense’ mean in the context of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment?” 452 Pa. at 256. The ensuing discussion in this concurring opinion was directed entirely to consideration of that question, leading Mr. Justice Eagen to conclude that, since the crimes charged in the second prosecutions were not intended to prevent a substantially different harm or evil than those charged in the first prosecutions, “these crimes were the ‘same offense’ in the constitutional sense, and, hence, the second prosecutions constituted double jeopardy”. 452 Pa. at 260. (Concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Eagen.)
Mr. Justice Nix filed an opinion in which he concurred with the result reached, but on non-constitutional grounds. Analyzing the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 25 L. Ed. 2d 469 (1970), he concluded that
The dissenting opinion of this writer was based largely on what was believed to be a misconception of the plurality opinion that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Federal Constitution, properly interpreted, compelled or supported its holding: “[T]he issue which the majority has today framed and answered in the affirmative—whether the Federal Constitution contains a rule requiring joinder of admittedly separate offenses arising from the ‘same criminal episode’—has already been answered for us in the negative. Ciucci v. Illinois, 856 U.S. 571, 2 L. Ed. 2d 983 (1958). The Court’s failure to recognize this fact, in my view, bids fair to disturb in a serious manner the allocation of power as between our state courts and the United States Supreme Court.” 452 Pa. at 268-69. (Dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Pomeroy.) (Footnote omitted.) The dissenting opinion went on to indicate approval, as a rule of criminal procedure, of the approach proposed by the American Bar Association Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice (Standards Relating to Joinder and Severance, §1.3) (Approved Draft 1968), and made note, as another non-constitutional approach to the problem, of the compulsory joinder provisions contained in Pennsylvania’s new Crime’s Code, Act of Dec. 6, 1972, P. L. 1482, No. 334, 18 Pa. S. §110, effective June 6, 1973.
From the foregoing cursory review of the opinions filed in Campana, it is manifest that every member of this Court considered that the plurality opinion and the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Eagen, subscribed to in total by five justices, were addressed to and based upon the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
To my mind the above statement is evasive and equivocal, and I cannot subscribe to it. It represents a refusal to accept accountability for our decisions on federal constitutional law and an unwillingness to leave to the highest federal court the last word on questions of such law.
Today’s addendum opinion, however, should have one result which I believe to be salutary. By its retreat
The effect of the Court’s statement will presumably be to cause the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate our former judgments and to vacate the writ as improvidently granted. Murdock v. City of Memphis, 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 590 (1874).
Concurrence Opinion
Concurring Opinion
In my concurring opinion in Commonwealth v. Campana, 452 Pa. 233, 304 A. 2d 432 (1973), I was of the opinion that the result reached by the Court could not be justified by the Double Jeopardy Clauses of either the State or Federal Constitution.
U. S. Const., Amendment V; Pa. Const., Art. I, Sec. 10.