Case Title: Com. v. Collier

Citation: 413 A.2d 680, 489 Pa. 26

Docket Number: 

State: pennsylvania

Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Date: 1980-04-28T00:00:00Z

Document:
489 Pa. 26 (1980) 413 A.2d 680 COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Jerry COLLIER, Appellant. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. April 28, 1980. *27 Richard H. Knox, Philadelphia, for appellant. Ellen Mattleman, Robert B. Lawler, Chief, Appeals Div., Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee. Before EAGEN, C.J., and O'BRIEN, ROBERTS, NIX, LARSEN and FLAHERTY, JJ. O'BRIEN, Justice. This appeal from the imposition of sentence in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Criminal Division, comes to us on the submission of a brief purportedly in compliance with the rule in Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S. Ct. 1396, 18 L. Ed. 2d 493 (1967). On April 17, 1978, appellant, at the conclusion of a bench trial, was adjudicated guilty of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. No post-verdict motions were filed. On June 22, 1978, judgment was entered imposing a sentence of two and one-half to ten years imprisonment on the manslaughter conviction, and two and one-half *28 to five years on the bill charging possession of an instrument of crime. The terms of imprisonment are to run concurrently. Despite the fact that no post-verdict motions were filed, appellant, on July 13, 1978, filed a notice of appeal in this court. Before us now is the petition of appellant's new counsel to withdraw, and his Anders brief. In Commonwealth v. Baker, 429 Pa. 209, 239 A.2d 201 (1968), we adopted the rule in Anders and reaffirmed that the Anders standards require that counsel representing an indigent criminal defendant must assume "the role of an advocate in behalf of his client." Anders, supra, 386 U.S. at 744, 87 S. Ct. at 1400. He may not serve as amicus curiae. The instant case is identical to Commonwealth v. Perry, 464 Pa. 272, 346 A.2d 554 (1975). Therein, after reviewing the requisites of representation under the Anders standards, we stated: As the brief submitted in the instant case is flawed in precisely the same fashion as was that in Perry, id., and Baker, supra, we are constrained to reach the same result. The record is remanded to the trial court with directions to appoint new counsel to represent appellant in this appeal.