Court Opinion

ID: 9698255
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:45:46.76235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:39.482753
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
For the reasons fully set forth in my dissenting opinion in Commonwealth v. Walker, 477 Pa. 370, 377, 383 A.2d 1253, 1256 (1978) (Pomeroy, J., dissenting, joined by Eagen, C. J., and Larsen, J.), and the dissenting opinions cited therein, I remain opposed to this Court’s continued application of its per se rule excluding juvenile confessions. The punitive exclusion is peculiarly inappropriate in cases such as this, where the police conduct complained of (i.e., failure to obtain parental or other adult counseling for the juvenile prior to taking any statement) occurred before the announcement of that rule. I must once more register my disagreement with this renewed application of an ill-conceived and illogical rule. Hence this dissent.
EAGEN, C. J., joins in this dissenting opinion.