Court Opinion

ID: 9746325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:12:12.488721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:12.174503
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that “it is apparent ... that the prosecutor has discretion to invoke the terms of Section 9712.... ” Rather, I agree with the Superior Court that: “The sentence originally imposed did not conform to the mandatory minimum sentence required by statute and was, therefore, invalid on its face. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9712. The trial court, sua sponte, properly vacated the invalid sentence and subsequently imposed the sentence which was required by law.” Memorandum Opinion at 2 (emphasis added).
The Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Act, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9712, provides, in its entirety (with emphasis added):
Sentences for offenses committed with firearms
(a) Mandatory sentence. — Any person who is convicted in any court of this Commonwealth of murder of the third degree, voluntary manslaughter, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, robbery as defined in 18 Pa. C.S. § 3701(a)(1)(i), (ii) or (iii) (relating to robbery), aggravated assault as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 2702(a)(1) (relating to aggravated assault) or kidnapping, or who is convicted of attempt to commit any of these crimes, shall, if the person visibly possessed a firearm during the commission of the offense, be sentenced to a minimum sentence of at least five years of total confinement notwithstanding any other provision of this title or other statute to the contrary.
(b) Proof at sentencing. — Provisions of this section shall not be an element of the crime and notice thereof to the defendant shall not be required prior to conviction, *283but reasonable notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed under this section shall be provided after conviction and before sentencing. The applicability of this section shall be determined at sentencing. The court shall consider any evidence presented at trial and shall afford the Commonwealth and the defendant an opportunity to present any necessary additional evidence and shall determine, by a preponderance of the evidence, if this section is applicable.
(c) Authority of court in sentencing. — There shall be no authority in any court to impose on an offender to which this section is applicable any lesser sentence than provided for in subsection (a) or to place such offender on probation or to suspend sentence. Nothing in this section shall prevent the sentencing court from imposing a sentence greater than that provided in this section. Sentencing guidelines promulgated by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing shall not supersede the mandatory sentences provided in this section.
(d) Appeal by Commonwealth. — If a sentencing court refuses to apply this section where applicable, the Commonwealth shall have the right to appellate review of the action of the sentencing court. The appellate court shall vacate the sentence and remand the case to the sentencing court for imposition of a sentence in accordance with this section if it finds that the sentence was imposed in violation of this section.
(e) Definition of firearm. — As used in this section “firearm” means any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or the expansion of gas therein.
The majority purports to quote the “pertinent part” of section 9712, but instead, quotes only subsections (a) and (b) and focuses exclusively on the first sentence of subsection (b). Majority slip op. at 6-8. So focused, the majority misinterprets the phrase “reasonable notice of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed under this section shall be *284provided after conviction and before sentencing,” as a legislative grant of discretion to the prosecutor to decide whether to invoke section 9712. I believe this interpretation takes the above-excerpted provision of subsection (b) out of context, ignores clear contrary language of the Act, and converts the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Act to the “Discretionary Minimum Sentencing Act” in derogation of the legislature’s manifest intent.
As we stated in Commonwealth v. Wright, 508 Pa. 25, 494 A.2d 354 (1985), aff'd sub nom McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986), “Society cannot tolerate the tyranny of armed felons. Recognizing this, the legislature wisely enacted legislation providing for a mandatory minimum five-year jail term for those who visibly use a firearm in the commission” of any of the enumerated felonies. 508 Pa. at 42, 494 A.2d at 363 (Concurring Opinion of Larsen, J., joined in by the majority opinion). The entire thrust of section 9712 is in the highest degree mandatory and admits of no exceptions. Nevertheless, the majority carves out an exception to mandatory minimum sentencing because of its flawed interpretation of the phrase: “reasonable notice- of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed under this section shall be provided after conviction and before sentencing.”
Subsection (a) “Mandatory sentence,” expresses the legislature’s intent most clearly: Any person who is convicted of one of the enumerated felonies and who visibly possessed a firearm during the commission of the offense shall ... be sentenced to a minimum sentence of at least five years of total confinement notwithstanding any other provision of this title____”
Subsection (b), “Proof at sentencing,” contains three sentences. The first establishes that the provisions of this section are not an element of the crime as to which the defendant must be notified prior to conviction, but requires that the notice “of the Commonwealth’s intention to proceed under this section” shall be provided before sentencing. While this phrase, standing alone, could arguably support *285an inference that the Commonwealth has discretion whether to proceed under section 9712 (i.e., whether the Commonwealth has the “intention to proceed”), such an inference is an overly literal one which ignores the context in which that phrase occurs and the remainder of the Act. The second and third sentences of subsection (b), and subsections (c) and (d), establish unambiguously that the sentencing court is to be the sole adjudicator of the applicability of section 9712 and that, once the court makes that determination, there is no authority or discretion in the court to impose anything less than the mandatory minimum five year jail term.
The remainder of subsection (b) provides that the applicability of section 9712 shall be determined by the court at sentencing after considering any evidence presented at trial and affording both the Commonwealth and the defendant an opportunity to present any necessary additional evidence. Subsection (b) is designed, therefore, to give the defendant notice of his sentencing under this section, and an opportunity to present evidence (important procedural rights because the provisions of this section are not elements of the crime of which he has been convicted.) However, in light of the subsequent provisions of subsection (b) reposing the sole authority to determine the applicability of section 9712 in the sentencing court, and in light of subsections (c) and (d) (to be discussed), I do not read subsection (b) as giving the prosecutor any authority or discretion to decide whether or not to proceed under this section, and I agree with the lower courts that where, as here, the prosecutor fails to render the requisite notice, the sentencing court must supply that notice where it determines that section 9712 applies. The “Commonwealth’s intention” is expressed in and compelled by the Act.
Subsection (c), “Authority of the court,” makes this interpretation explicit. “There shall be no authority in any court to impose on an offender to which this section is applicable any lesser sentence ...,” although the sentencing court retains its traditional authority to impose a sen*286tence greater than that provided in this section. Under subsections (b) and (c) therefore, the court (and only the court) determines whether section 9712 is applicable and, when it determines that this section is applicable, it has no authority to impose anything less than five years imprisonment. By the majority’s interpretation, however, a prosecutor may unilaterally render these provisions meaningless, and thwart the mandatory nature of the Act and the legislative intent, simply by refusing to give notice of his or her intention to proceed under section 9712. This interpretation would, in this case, require the court to impose a sentence which it has no authority to impose because it is less than the mandatory minimum five years which the court has determined to be applicable.
Subsection (d) further supports the lower courts’ determinations in this case, and further demonstrates the manifest legislative intent to remove all elements of judicial discretion to impose a lesser sentence from the sentencing determination where the defendant has visibly possessed a firearm. This subsection provides that the appellate court “shall vacate the sentence and remand ... for imposition of a sentence in accordance with this section if it finds that the sentence was imposed in violation of this section.” The original sentence in the instant case of two to four years imprisonment was, indeed, imposed in violation of this section, and subsection (d) makes it mandatory for the appellate court to vacate such an unlawful sentence.
This Act, and every “statute shall be construed, if possible, to give effect to all its provisions.” The Statutory Construction Act of 1972, 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1921(a). We can best achieve this result in the instant case by interpreting subsection (b) to require the Commonwealth to notify the defendant of its intention to proceed under this section where applicable, but in the event the Commonwealth does not give such notice, to require the court to supply the requisite notice to defendant after it makes a preliminary determination (as it did here) that the section is applicable. By such interpretation, we would maintain the notice re*287quirements of the Act while preserving the explicit, exclusive authority of the court to make the determination of its applicability and to mandatorily impose at least five years imprisonment for the visible possession of a firearm during commission of the felony.
The majority’s interpretation today reaches an anomalous result. It is highly irregular to interpret the Act as, on the one hand, removing from the sentencing court a large measure of the discretion traditionally reserved for the courts at sentencing, and on the other hand, to repose in the prosecutor sole discretion over whether to impose mandatory sentencing, a discretion not within the traditional authority of the prosecutor. As we stated in Wright:
The section in question removes from the sentencing court the discretion to decide whether total confinement is appropriate and whether to set a minimum sentence of less than five years. Visible possession of a firearm during the commission of the crime is a sentencing factor which, if found, is dispositive of those issues. The legislature has thus foreclosed the possibility of leniency to such gun-users.
Commonwealth v. Wright, supra at 508 Pa. 32-33, 494 A.2d 357-58 (emphasis added).
The majority’s interpretation not only ignores the plain language of the Act to the contrary, and thwarts the intent of the General Assembly, it produces an absurd and unreasonable result, which is impossible to execute because the court has no authority to impose a lesser sentence than the five years required by statute when it determines section 9712 to be applicable. See 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1922(1) (“the General Assembly does not intend a result that is absurd, impossible of execution or unreasonable.”).
Additionally, for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the prosecutor now has sentencing discretion ... thus creating a contravention of the historical, definitional and functional role of a prosecutor.
*288For the foregoing reasons, I dissent to the majority’s emasculation of the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Act.
PAPADAKOS, J., joins this dissenting opinion.