Opinion ID: 1959151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Improper Focus Regarding Prejudice

Text: In upholding the discovery/suppression order, the majority appears to focus upon the prejudice they assume had arisen between the murder on April 25, 1951, and the non-compliance with the trial court's disclosure order on September 30, 1988. While I find no prejudice established with respect to that time period (given the patent irrelevance of the identity of the confidential informant, or his/her hearsay evidence), I find that period wholly irrelevant to a determination of the appropriateness of the sanction order imposed. Rather, the relevant time period was the time between the disclosure order on September 30, 1988 and the sanction order on October 28, 1988, the period of non-compliance. If no prejudice occurred between those dates, then there could be no justification for the trial court's failure to even attempt to simply direct compliance by the officer, on pain of contempt. I find no evidence of prejudice even suggested as to that time period. In sum, I find that the discovery sanction imposed was in no sense just under the circumstances. Pa.R.Crim.P. 305(E). I would vacate the order as a manifest abuse of discretion.