Court Opinion

ID: 9705487
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:08:52.401269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:36.028044
License: Public Domain

POPOVICH, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that a violation of Pa.R.Crim.P. 1405, requires this court to vacate appellant’s judgment of sentence and discharge him from his sentence of probation.
I agree that Pa.R.Crim.P. 1405(A)(1) provides that, “sentence in a court case shall ordinarily be imposed within 60 *653days of conviction or entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendré.” I also agree that Pa.R.Crim.P. 1410 does away with the “post-trial” motion in favor of an optional “post-sentence” motion. Significantly, neither of those rules provides for any remedy, much less the ultimate remedy of discharge, when the sixty-day sentencing limit is violated, and I would not read such a requirement into the rule.
Indeed, if our supreme court intended the rule to require a defendant’s conviction to be discharged when the sixty-day sentencing time-limit of Pa.R.Crim.P. 1405 was violated, I believe the court would have so provided specifically in much the same way as the court did in the related speedy trial rule of Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100(g) (expressly provides that a defendant may move to dismiss the charges with prejudice when the rule is violated). Further, appellant’s right to be sentenced within sixty days of his conviction is clearly not a right of constitutional proportion warranting the ultimate sanction of discharge against the Commonwealth, unless the delay impacts upon appellant’s right to a speedy trial. See, Commonwealth v. Brockway, 429 Pa.Super. 609, 633 A.2d 188, appeal denied, 537 Pa. 616, 641 A.2d 582 (1994) (speedy trial rights were not violated when defendant was not sentenced until three years after his conviction where defendant failed to demonstrate any prejudice cause by the delay); Commonwealth v. Greer, 382 Pa.Super. 127, 554 A.2d 980 (1989) (speedy trial right encompasses sentencing process; delay of over seven years did not implicate right to speedy trial where defendant did not object to the delay). Presently, I fail to see how appellant could have been prejudiced in any manner by the delay of 111 days between conviction and sentencing, and appellant has not alleged any prejudice.
I can not agree with the majority’s determination that appellant’s own mistake of filing a post-trial motion instead of the proper post-sentence motion, see Pa.R.Crim.P. 1410, should serve as the basis for his discharge. I think the delay caused by the filing of this inappropriate motion should be charged to appellant and constitute “good cause shown” for sentencing appellant beyond the sixty-day limit. This would *654not be the first time our court has applied a Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100 analysis to an unrelated rule or “statute of limitation”. See, Commonwealth v. Quinn, 405 Pa.Super. 487, 592 A.2d 1316 (1991), appeal denied, 529 Pa. 619, 600 A.2d 535 (any period of delay directly attributable to the accused tolls the limitations period as provided for in 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5553, which mandates that all proceedings in court of common pleas for summary motor vehicle offenses must be completed within two years of purported offense).
Finally, I do not believe the majority would be so quick to discharge this defendant if his crime was one of murder, rape or aggravated assault, rather than indirect criminal contempt. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 4136. Accordingly, I would affirm the decision of the court below.