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

Heading: Hydraulic Forces and Well-Settled Principles

Text: Associate Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr., writing in dissent in Northern Securities v. United States, 193 U.S. 197, 24 S.Ct. 436, 48 L.Ed. 679 (1903), set forth his famous dictum that: Great cases, like hard cases, make bad law. For great cases are called great, not by reason of their real importance in shaping the law of the future, but because of some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment. These immediate interests exercise a kind of hydraulic pressure which makes what previously was clear seem doubtful, and before which even well-settled principles of law will bend. 193 U.S. at 400-01, 24 S.Ct. at 468, 48 L.Ed. at 726. The instant case involves the highly notorious murder of an eight year old girl, thirty nine years ago. After so much time, an aged suspect has been brought before the bar of our courts to answer a charge of murder. Under ordinary circumstances, one might be tempted to conclude out-of-hand that reasonable doubt must arise from the simple fact of the passage of so great a period of time; in the instant case, however, there is evidence of an alleged recent confession. The majority, in all candor, has stated clearly that, the age of the case is a significant overriding factor in their analysis. (Majority Opinion, supra, at 302-303). I respect (and to some extent share) their concerns regarding the age of this case. Nonetheless, I am unwilling to allow those concerns to become a hydraulic force which bends the well-settled principles of law which control the disposition of this appeal. Though murder prosecutions are subject to no statute of limitations (42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5551), due process restrictions may preclude prosecution in certain circumstances. See United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971); Commonwealth v. Patterson, 392 Pa. Super. 331, 339-340, 572 A.2d 1258, 1262-63 (1990); Commonwealth v. Akers, 392 Pa.Super. 170, 183-185, 572 A.2d 746, 752-53 (1990); Commonwealth v. Graizer, 391 Pa.Super. 202, 570 A.2d 1054 (1990). Knowing that appellant may address the age of the case issue directly, via a due process challenge to the charges, I am less inclined than I might be otherwise to permit the age of the case to exert hydraulic force upon my analysis of the well settled principles which control our review of the discovery sanctions/suppression order currently before this Court on appeal. [1]