Court Opinion

ID: 9691912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:24:45.339324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:28.149218
License: Public Domain

JOYCE, J.,
concurring.
¶ 1 I agree with the well-reasoned result arrived at by the Majority. I write separately to further clarify my position relative to Appellant’s argument that her sentence of restitution was illegal simply because the district attorney failed to make a request for restitution at the time of sentencing.
¶ 2 It is true that 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1106(c)(4)(i) states that the district attorney’s office is responsible for making a recommendation to the court as to the amount of restitution that should be ordered. However, absent this recommendation, I do not believe that the sentence is “illegal” as Appellant would have us conclude. The purpose of this subsection of the statute, in my estimation, is to put the onus of recommending restitution upon the district attorney’s office, as opposed to some other agency such as the probation department or a victim’s advocacy group. Nowhere in the statute does a failure to make a recommendation result in an illegal sentence. If Appellant’s argument were accurate, it would frustrate the overall purpose of 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1106, which is to mandate the court to impose restitution so as to rehabilitate the offender “by impressing upon him that his criminal conduct caused the victim’s personal injury and that it is his responsibility to repair the injury as far as possible.” Commonwealth v. Figueroa, 456 Pa.Super. 620, 691 A.2d 487, 489 (1997).
¶ 3 In addition to frustrating the purpose of mandatory restitution, effectuating a requirement as suggested by Appellant would be largely impractical. A prime example of the lack of need of a district attorney to make a recommendation is present in the case sub judice where the amount of restitution is set by statute. Another example exists when a district justice conducts a summary trial. In many counties, a district attorney is not present at summary trials and a police officer prosecutes the case. Obviously, in such a scenario the absence of a district attorney does not impede the district justice from imposing restitution following a finding of guilt and would not result in the imposition of an illegal sentence.4 So, while 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1106 does designate *572the district attorney’s office as the proper office to recommend restitution, the lack of a recommendation does not automatically render the sentence illegal. The critical requirement from a due process standpoint is that the specific restitution amount is entered at the time of sentencing as part a 53 O O QCD m © & CD KS 3 CD CD pu cr CD T3 bo 9> S i>P E? CD SO cr CD CD E-cT CS

. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 1106(d), the limitations on district justices, does not negate this problem.