Court Opinion

ID: 9764375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:19:44.055413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:56.078292
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
I continue to be of the view that this Court’s per se rule, which requires reversal of convictions in which a juvenile has waived his Miranda rights without an opportunity to consult with a parent or other interested adult who himself *378has first been advised of the juvenile’s rights, is “unwise, unnecessary and unwarranted.” Commonwealth v. Chaney, 465 Pa. 407, 410, 350 A.2d 829 (1975) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Jones, C. J., and Eagen, J.). See also, e. g., Commonwealth v. Smith, 472 Pa. 492, 372 A.2d 797, 804 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Eagen, C. J.); Commonwealth v. Webster, 466 Pa. 314, 329, 353 A.2d 372 (1975) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting); Commonwealth v. Starkes, 461 Pa. 178, 190, 335 A.2d 698 (1975) (Eagen, J., dissenting, joined by Jones, C. J., and Pomeroy, J.).
In addition, it bears repeating that the application of this exclusionary rule “is not a response to police activity in disregard of a rule of law which they knew or should have known, for the arrest and interrogation here involved took place prior to this Court’s announcement of the rule in Commonwealth v. Roane, 459 Pa. 389, 329 A.2d 286 (1974), and its progeny.” Commonwealth v. Harvell, 473 Pa. 418, 423, 374 A.2d 1282, 1285 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Eagen, C. J.). Application of the per se rule to this case, in which trial commenced before the rule was announced, is thus even less warranted than the rule itself. See also, e. g., Commonwealth v. Lee, 475 Pa. 314, 316, 380 A.2d 371 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Eagen, C. J.); Commonwealth v. Graver, 473 Pa. 473, 477, 375 A.2d 339, 340 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting); Commonwealth v. Gaskins, 471 Pa. 238, 242, 369 A.2d 1285, 1287 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Jones, C. J., and Eagen, J.); Commonwealth v. Lee, 470 Pa. 401, 406, 368 A.2d 690, 693 (1977) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Jones, C. J., and Eagen, J.). Hence this dissent.
EAGEN, C. J., and LARSEN, J., join in this dissenting opinion.