Court Opinion

ID: 9746857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:41:29.119304+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:17.653734
License: Public Domain

CAVANAUGH, Judge,
concurring:
I join in the majority opinion. However, I wish to state my understanding of the majority’s rationale for determining the amount of money which appellant may be required to pay the victim as a condition of probation.
The majority states that “[t]he point was not whether, while he was ‘married’ to Mrs. Welsh, appellant had contributed more money to their relationship than she spent on him, so that she suffered some sort of net ‘loss’; the point was rather, whether by being required to repay Mr. Welsh what she spent on him, appellant would be impressed with the cruelty of his conduct, and deterred from repeating it, and encouraged to live in a responsible way.” Majority Opinion, ante 581. As I understand the majority opinion, appellant may be required to pay this amount since it was imposed as a condition of probation. I agree. Sentencing courts are “traditionally and properly invested with a broader measure of discretion in fashioning conditions of probation appropriate to the circumstances of the individual case.” Commonwealth v. Walton, 483 Pa. 588, 598, 397 A.2d 1179, 1184 (1979) (citation omitted).
I do not understand the majority to, nor do I, express any opinion as to the propriety of requiring a defendant to pay such an amount as restitution imposed in addition to other punishment. It is with this understanding that I join the majority opinion.