Court Opinion

ID: 9752564
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:15:06.256499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:17.479118
License: Public Domain

DEL SOLE, Judge,
concurring:
I join the Majority in its determination that the local practice requiring an Order of Court before post-verdict motions may be filed with the Clerk of Courts is impermissible. On this basis I agree that the post-verdict motions in this case should be considered timely filed. While normally I would suggest that the matter be remanded to the trial court for the filing of an opinion, in the interest of judicial economy, I join the majority on all of the substantive issues raised on appeal except the sentencing question.
The discussion of Kurtas v. Kurtas, 521 Pa. 105, 555 A.2d 804 (1989) in the Majority Opinion is unnecessary for the disposition of this case. While I am in agreement with *356the Majority’s view that the rationale of Kurtas should also apply to criminal cases, since we have determined that the post-verdict motions were properly filed, we need not analyze this case under Kurtas. Also, in the case sub judice the trial court did not dispose of the post-verdict motions on the merits, thus, the Kurtas holding that disposition of late filed post-trial motions on their merits operates as a waiver has not been met. Also, I am concerned with the language found in the Majority Opinion on page 20 where it states:
In effect, where the lower court has considered the merits of a party’s post-trial motions for relief, such action by the court below acts as a waiver of the ten day rule and excuses any delay in filing such motions.
My reading of Kurtas would not permit the lower court to excuse a delay which extends beyond thirty days in the filing of post-trial motions. There would be no jurisdiction in the trial court level after thirty days. Also, I would point out that the discussion of Kurtas in the Majority Opinion is dictum.
I must disagree with the Majority’s decision to disallow an appeal from the discretionary aspects of sentencing. At the outset I believe the time has come for the General Assembly to review 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9781(b) which limits the review of discretionary sentencing matters to those cases where only a “substantial question” exists and where this court agrees to exercise its discretion and hear the issue. It is my view that in a criminal proceeding a defendant has a right to have all matters reviewed which have been properly preserved at the trial court level. Further, I believe that Article 5, Section 9 of the Constitution of this Commonwealth prohibits the limitation of review found in 42 Pa.C. S.A. § 9781(b). That Article provides as follows:
There shall be a right of appeal in all cases to a court of record from a court not of record; and there shall also be a right of appeal from a court of record or from an administrative agency to a court of record or to an appellate court, the selection of such court to be as provided by law; and there shall be such other rights of appeal as may be provided by law.
*357The Supreme Court has stated that this section establishes a right of appeal to an appellate court. In Commonwealth v. Wilkerson, 490 Pa. 296, 416 A.2d 477 (1980) the Supreme Court in discussing the right of appeal in the context of a PCHA petition stated:
... an accused has an absolute right to appeal, Pa. Constitution, Article V, Section 9, and counsel can be faulted for allowing that right to be waived unless the accused himself effectively waives the right, i.e., for not protecting the accused’s right in the absence of an effective waiver. This requirement that counsel protect the appellate of an accused extends even to circumstances where the appeal is “totally without merit.” ...
The applicable section of the Sentencing Code that eliminates a right of an appeal by requiring that review of certain sentencing questions is purely discretionary with the appellate court would seem to violate this constitutional provision. This issue can only be addressed in the appellate courts and is not one that can be raised in the trial court.
With regard to to the case sub judice, having reviewed the sentence and the reasons for the sentence stated by the sentencing judge, I find that the sentence imposed by the trial judge was appropriate and proper under the circumstances and would, therefore, affirm the judgment of sentence.