Court Opinion

ID: 9702924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:32:29.722085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:43.674093
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
concurring.
I join in the Opinion of the Majority. However, I am compelled to comment further that cases like this one, and other of its ilk argue convincingly for altering the current Rule 1100. Thus, I would modify the Rule in the following manner.
Rather than the current 180 day period, I advocate the adoption of a 270 day period within which to permit prosecution. However, to insure that untried defendants are not unduly confined without an opportunity to have their day in court, I would maintain the 180 day period as the maximum that a defendant could be incarcerated for a given offense while awaiting the commencement of his trial.1 In such an instance the defendant would be released upon petition of his attorney, but the Commonwealth would be permitted to bring the defendant to trial within the following 90 days. If at the end of 270 days, discounting excludable time under Pa.R.Crim.Pro. 1100(c); and 1100(d), the defendant was not brought to trial, then, and only then, would we impose the drastic sanction of dismissing charges altogether.

. For purposes of calculating this 180 day period the provisions of Pa.R.Crim.Pro. 1100(c), would be inapplicable.