Court Opinion

ID: 9764244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:16:51.70948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:55.270975
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the opinion of the Court and note that today’s decision repudiates Commonwealth v. Banks, 428 Pa. 571, 237 A.2d 339 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 895, 89 S.Ct. 156, 21 L.Ed.2d 177 (1968), which, by per curiam order, refused to award a new trial to an appellant alleging trial error although no transcript of the trial existed. As I stated in my dissent in Banks, denying a new trial in such circumstances would “fly in the face of [the] controlling . . . principles enunciated in Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, [9 L.Ed.2d 811] (1963) and Norvell v. Illinois, 373 U.S. 420, 83 S.Ct. 1366, [10 L.Ed.2d 456] (1963).” Commonwealth v. Banks, supra, 428 Pa. at 571, 237 A.2d at 339-340 (dissenting opinion of Roberts, J., joined by Eagen, J. (now C. J.)). It is regrettable that Banks and others similarly situated were not accorded the benefit of the principle of today’s decision.