Court Opinion

ID: 9732293
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:14:32.407368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:36.286749
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I agree with the majority that the Youth Offenders Act was not impliedly repealed by adoption of the Sentencing Guidelines. I also agree that a sentence under the Youth Offenders Act is a sentence “outside” the guidelines, is subject to the written statement requirement of 42 Pa.C. S.A. § 9721(b) and 204 Pa.Code § 303.1(h), and is reviewable under 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9781(b) and 9781(c)(3). See Commonwealth v. Felix, 372 Pa.Super. 145, 154 n. 4, 539 A.2d 371, 375 n. 4 (1988).
I do not agree that: 1) if the Commonwealth fails to raise a challenge to an appellant’s failure to comply with Pa.R. A.P. 2119(f), that procedural defect is waived and will be ignored; and, 2) if the Commonwealth properly raises a challenge to an appellant’s failure to comply with Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f), appellant’s challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentence must be deemed to have been waived. Those pronouncements improperly and unduly restrict this Court’s inherent discretionary authority to enforce the rules of procedure sua sponte, and to decide in our sound discretion *457what the proper response to a procedural defect is in a particular case. See Commonwealth v. Zeitlen, 366 Pa.Super. 78, 81-86, 530 A.2d 900, 902-04 (1987) (Kelly, J., joining and concurring); see also Commonwealth v. Graham, 372 Pa.Super. 365, 367, 539 A.2d 838, 839 (1988); Commonwealth v. Felix, supra, 372 Pa.Super. at 155, 539 A.2d at 376 (1988); Commonwealth v. Douglass, 370 Pa.Super. 104, 106, 535 A.2d 1172, 1174 (1988); Commonwealth v. Pickford, 370 Pa.Super. 444, 453, 536 A.2d 1348, 1356-57 (1987) (Kelly, J., concurring and dissenting).
In the instant case, appellant argues that the trial court failed to comply with the written statement requirement of 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9721 and 204 Pa.Code § 303.1(h). This issue was properly preserved by a timely motion to modify sentence, timely notice of appeal, and inclusion of the issue in the statement of questions presented. However, counsel failed to include the required Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) statement in appellant’s brief. Rather than find the issue waived based upon counsel’s procedural default, I would simply direct counsel to file a supplement to the brief to comply with Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f), and thereby avoid the inevitable PCHA petition raising this identical claim in an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. See Commonwealth v. Zeitlen, supra, 366 Pa.Super. at 81-85, 530 A.2d at 902-03.
Thus, I concur in part and dissent in part.