Court Opinion

ID: 9733175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:56:08.502018+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:39.090039
License: Public Domain

HUTCHINSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The Commonwealth enjoys a right to appeal an adverse suppression order only upon a good faith certification by the Commonwealth that the suppression order terminates or substantially handicaps its prosecution. Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 486 A.2d 382 (1985). See also Commonwealth v. Bosurgi, 411 Pa. 56, 190 A.2d 304, cert. denied, 375 U.S. 910, 84 S.Ct. 204, 11 L.Ed.2d 149 (1963). My review of the record in this case reveals that the Commonwealth failed to make any certification as to the impact of the suppression order upon its case. Accordingly, I would quash this appeal and would not reach the Davenport issue. The failure to heed the certification requirement of Dugger will only add to Superior Court’s already congested docket unwarranted Commonwealth appeals of suppression orders. Moreover, I do not believe that the Commonwealth, in good faith, could possibly certify that the exclusion of appellee’s inculpatory statement alone either terminates or substantially handicaps its prosecution in light of the wealth of physical evidence available to the Commonwealth. On the record before us this is a *411purely interlocutory appeal. I see no need to engage our limited appellate resources in deciding it.