Court Opinion

ID: 9699777
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:51:19.202054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:57.265615
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion.
The Court again finds itself compelled to engage in an exhaustive analysis of the requirements of the guilty plea colloquy. Our observations in Commonwealth v. Shaffer, 498 Pa. 342, 446 A.2d 591 (1982), are, unfortunately, as apt today as they were when Shaffer was decided:
A review of our many decisions in the guilty plea area shows that these standards have generated confusion where there should be clarity. The instant case further illustrates this point.
Defendants appealing the denial of petitions to withdraw their guilty pleas have consistently mounted twofold attacks on the guilty plea colloquy, challenging both its content and the subjective ability of the defendant to *426grasp the gravity and complexity of the procedures. This course suffers from debilitating illogic.
It is indisputable that a defendant must be fully aware of any rights that he purports to waive before such a waiver can be accepted. Nevertheless, ... some credibili-' ty must be placed in the concept that defense counsel will enlighten his client as the four elements set forth in [Commonwealth v. Ingram, 455 Pa. 198, 316 A.2d 77 (1974)]
... There is no requirement that a defendant be given what amounts to a short law school course on the nature of the charges he faces. This court would do well to consider an alternative to our present appeal challenging the substance of the colloquy, leaving for our review those cases which raise valid constitutional questions.
498 Pa. 355-56, 446 A.2d at 597-98 (McDermott, J., concurring) (footnotes omitted). For the benefit of the bench, the bar and the citizens of the Commonwealth, this Court is obliged to articulate a workable standard guilty plea colloquy. “[T]he evolving patchwork of colloquy requirements places an onerous burden of uncertainty on the trial court, and affords numerous grounds for challenges to the content of the colloquy.” 498 Pa. at 356 n. 2, 446 A.2d at 598 n. 2. Until we devise a standard colloquy, uncertainty will persist in the lower courts, and our appellate dockets will be choked with the frivolous appeals which our present ad hoc system invites.