Title: Commonwealth v. Savage (Dissenting Statement)
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 16 EAP 2000
State: Pennsylvania
Issuer: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Date: July 18, 2001

[J-25-01] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA EASTERN DISTRICT COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellant v. CHRISTOPHER SAVAGE, Appellant : : : : : : : : : : : : No. 0016 E.D. Appeal Dkt. 2000 Appeal from the Order of the Superior Court entered November 30, 1999 at No. 2358, affirming the Order of the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Criminal Division at No. 96-03-0158 ARGUED: January 31, 2001 DISSENTING STATEMENT MR. JUSTICE NIGRO FILED: July 17, 2001 I respectfully dissent from the majority’s order to dismiss this case as improvidently granted. Instead, I believe that this Court should address the second issue raised by Appellant regarding whether the trial court denied Appellant his constitutional rights to confrontation and due process by prohibiting him from cross-examining the testifying officers about Officer Duross’ influence on their testimony and from calling Officer Duross as a witness and questioning him about his disciplinary history. Given that Officer Duross was directly involved in arresting Appellant for possession of narcotics1 and that Officer Duross was previously disciplined for giving false testimony about the facts of a narcotics possession arrest, I believe that Officer Duross’ disciplinary history was completely relevant 1 Indeed, according to Appellant, it was Officer Duross who actually arrested him and in the course of doing so, planted drugs on him. 2 to Appellant’s case. Thus, in my view, the trial court clearly erred in precluding Appellant from introducing evidence of Officer Duross’ prior disciplinary suspensions.