Court Opinion

ID: 9731165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:36:41.257973+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:14.771935
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Roberts:
While I am in complete agreement with the majority’s interpretation of our Rules of Criminal Procedure, I must respectfully dissent from the majority’s disposition of these two appeals. In my opinion, both appeals should be quashed as interlocutory.
I think there is no doubt that the Commonwealth must strictly adhere to our Rules of Criminal Procedure. Likewise, it is clear that this Court must strictly enforce compliance. We certainly do not promulgate Rules merely to have them ignored or circumvented. But the issue before us now is not whether we should enforce our Rules, but when we should do so. In the instant cases, we may never be required to enforce compliance, since the Commonwealth may not be able to *37secure convictions. And if convictions are obtained, we can deal with these violations in our normal course of adjudication. Certainly the Commonwealth should realize that this Court will not allow a conviction to stand which has been secured in violation of our Rules.
The majority claims that it is “not deciding these difficult questions” of appealability. But by deciding the instant appeals on their merits, the majority has, in fact, decided that the orders involved here are appealable. The majority does not, however, carefully articulate the reasons for its departure from the normal rules governing finality, nor has it given sufficient indication of the circumstances in which it will again depart from these rules. Clarity in our rules of finality will encourage swifter disposition of litigation on the trial level, and will help keep our dockets free of cases which we may never be required to decide. I do not think it wise to blur our definition of finality by attempting ad hoc dispositions, as the majority does here, and I must, therefore, dissent.
Mr. Chief Justice Bell joins in this dissent.