Court Opinion

ID: 9697079
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:05:23.72058+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:29.016136
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
I join with the Majority because I agree that the judgment of sentence must be reversed and a new trial awarded in the case. However, this case raises, in my mind, serious *227questions of prosecutorial misconduct which the Majority ignores.
The chief prosecution witness, David Crater, who was also a principal in the felony murder, testified that he had no expectations, and that no promises of leniency had been made to him by the District Attorney in exchange for his testimony. The District Attorney remained silent as to any “deal” that may have been made with the witness for his testimony, thus indicating to the jury that none had been made. Notwithstanding the fact that in addition to the criminal homicide, robbery and criminal conspiracy charges in the instant case, he also had ten to fifteen other burglary, theft and criminal conspiracy charges pending against him before the same District Attorney, to all of which he had pled not guilty. On the burglary charges alone, he could conceivably have received sentences totaling one hundred fifty years.
However, after he testified in the instant action against his co-conspirators, he was “rewarded” by being permitted to change his plea from not guilty to the charge of criminal homicide to a plea of guilty to third degree murder. He received a sentence of six (6) to twelve (12) years for his role in the instant felony murder. He was also permitted to change his plea to guilty on all the other pending charges and received a total sentence of two (2) to four (4) years for all those charges, to run consecutive to the Ritchie sentence. I find this not infrequent practice of district attorneys sitting back and remaining silent while their witnesses perjure themselves appalling. Such reprehensible conduct should not be tolerated by our courts.
I cannot bring myself to believe that this self-confessed conspirator in a killing and this perpetrator of many burglaries, “saw the light” and confessed his crimes without any indication of leniency from the Office of the District Attorney which would prosecute him after he testified against Nolen and Evans. What happened at Crater’s trial and *228sentencing reeks of a “deal” having been made in exchange for his testimony against Nolen and Evans.
This case raises serious questions of prosecutorial misconduct in my mind. I would, therefore, remand for a hearing on the issue of whether or not there has been prosecutorial misconduct of such a degree that the Appellants were denied their right to a fair trial. If, in fact, that is the case, there are additional problems presented, in that the grant of a new trial would give rise to double jeopardy implications.