Court Opinion

ID: 9644475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:57:08.232741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:49:15.101778
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice,
concurring.
If the facts were limited to those recited and relied upon in the majority opinion, I would have serious question as to the probable cause for the arrest. I agree with the appellant that the descriptions were of a general nature and that the most distinguishing feature of the description (i. e., that one of the three youths was six feet four inches in height) did not match the group of suspects taken into custody.
The critical fact, in my judgment, is that when the officer returned to the scene with the suspect and opened the door of the police vehicle, the suspects were immediately identified by eyewitnesses to the crime prior to any attempt by the police to elicit an identification. Certainly, this identification alone would have justified the arrest. More importantly, assuming that the police did not have sufficient basis initially for taking the suspects into custody, the identification which was in no way prompted by police action would not have been tainted. See Commonwealth v. Garvin, 448 Pa. 258, 293 A.2d 33 (1972). It is for this reason that I can concur in the result reached by the majority.