Court Opinion

ID: 9647698
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:47:37.558667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:52.259138
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result reached by the majority but for different reasons.
The majority states that appellant alleges systematic racial discrimination in the method of selecting jurors in Monroe County. I disagree.
Pa.R.Crim.P. 1104(b), 19 P.S. Appendix, provides in part: “. . . [A] challenge to the array shall be made not later than five days before the first day of the week the case is listed for trial of criminal cases for which the jurors have been summoned and not thereafter, and shall be in writing, specifying the facts constituting the ground for the challenge.” (Emphasis added) In Commonwealth v. Butler, 448 Pa. 128, 132, 291 A.2d 89, 91 (1972), our Supreme Court stated that “the characteristics of one particular panel are not the type of facts which constitute grounds for a challenge. Rather, . . . the challenge must be to the selection procedures themselves, and not to the composition of a particular panel . . . .” In the instant case, appellant’s post-verdict motion avers only: “5. The Defendant was compelled to stand trial before a biased panel of jurors, thus violating his right to a fair and impartial trial by jury of his peers.” I do not believe this averment constitutes a challenge to the selection process. See also Commonwealth v. Greene, 469 Pa. 399, 366 A.2d 234 (1976).
Additionally, I believe that appellant’s challenge, whether to his particular panel or to the selection procedures, was not timely presented to the lower court. Rule 1104(b), supra, requires appellant to raise the issue pre-trial. In Butler, supra, our Supreme Court held that noncompliance with this Rule waives the issue. The rationale is the same as later *429expressed in Commonwealth v. Clair, 458 Pa. 418, 326 A.2d 272, 273 (1974), wherein the Supreme Court abrogated the doctrine of basic and fundamental error and required timely and specific objections: “The trial judge must be given an opportunity to rectify errors at the time they are made.” In the instant case, appellant did not raise his claim until the post-verdict stage of proceedings. Accordingly, I would not treat the merits but would hold that appellant has waived his claim by failing to present it to the lower court in a specific and timely manner.