Court Opinion

ID: 9704047
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:20:03.197365+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:55.383309
License: Public Domain

Concurring and Dissenting Opinion by
BENDER, J.:
¶ 1 While I join the Majority’s disposition of Appellant’s challenges to his guilty plea and the discretionary aspects of his sentence, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the Majority’s decision addressing the legality of his sentence. In particular, I disagree with the Majority’s conclusion that the trial court was permitted to apply a mandatory minimum sentence to all six of his convictions, thereby not recognizing that one of these offenses must be considered the predicate offense that triggered the mandatory minimum provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. § 7508, which enhances the sentence when the defendant has been convicted of another drug trafficking offense.
¶ 2 Under the Majority’s holding, a defendant with no prior record who is charged and convicted for multiple offenses is subject to the mandatory minimum for each and every conviction. Thus, the Majority concludes that in this case, “on all counts, [Appellant] was subject to enhanced mandatory mínimums.” Majority Opinion at 951. The Majority reaches this conclusion despite the lack of any precedent supporting its conclusion. In fact, underlying the most important decisions in this area of law, Commonwealth v. Vasquez, 562 Pa. 120, 753 A.2d 807 (2000), and Commonwealth v. Bell, 901 A.2d 1033 (Pa.Super.2006), the trial courts in both cases considered one of the offenses as the predicate offense before going on to apply the enhanced sentencing provisions for the remaining offenses. I conclude that this common sense approach to applying the enhanced sentencing provisions is more logical and is in keeping with the purpose of this law.
¶ 3 Simply stated, the statute requires a prior conviction, and therefore, one of Appellant’s convictions must be considered that prior conviction and serve as the predicate offense. To hold otherwise would contravene our rules of statutory construction “that the legislature does not intend a result that is absurd.” Commonwealth v. Shiffler, 583 Pa. 478, 879 A.2d 185, 189 (2005).
*954¶ 4 I am also bewildered by the trial court’s decision to sentence Appellant in this fashion when the court could easily have considered one of Appellant’s convictions as the predicate offense and still have sentenced Appellant to the same aggregate time of incarceration, if not more. Surely, the better course would have been to consider one of the offenses as the predicate and then sentence Appellant as the court deemed fit. Instead, we are left with an absurd result that the Majority now seeks to inscribe as precedent for the future. It is for this reason that I dissent,