Court Opinion

ID: 9766315
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:41:04.586558+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:21.290440
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge
(concurring):
I agree with the Majority’s disposition of the issues raised by appellant. I feel compelled to add a brief note concerning appellant’s final contention that “the statutory inference or presumption of being under the influence, resulting from the refusal to take a chemical test [is] unconstitutional” because “there is no reasonable relationship between the fact that a person refuses to take a chemical test for alcohol and the fact of whether or not he is under the influence of alcohol.”
The Majority finds that the inference of drunkenness follows “more likely than not” from the known fact that appellant refused to submit to the chemical test used to determine the alcohol content in the blood. In arriving at that result, the Majority discusses the implications of Commonwealth v. DiFrancesco, 458 Pa. 188, 329 A.2d 204 (1974), and Commonwealth v. Turner, 456 Pa. 116, *482317 A.2d 298 (1974), which held that “. . . the constitutionality of a standardized inference invoked to establish an esséntial element of the crime charged must be judged by the reasonable doubt standard.” Commonwealth v. DiFrancesco, supra at 196, 329 A.2d at 209. See also, Id. at 198, n. 6, 329 A.2d at 209, n. 6: “Mr. Justice Nix, joined by Mr. Justice Manderino, adopted this view in his opinion announcing the judgment of the Court in Commonwealth v. Turner, [supra] . . . .”
The Majority distinguishes the instant case and cases applying the “more likely than hot” standard from DiFrancesco Turner: “. . . Commonwealth v. DiFrancesco, [supra], and Commonwealth v. Turner, [supra], can be read to hold that in order for an inference used in a criminal prosecution to pass constitutional muster, the inferred fact must follow beyond a reasonable doubt from the proved fact. . . . To so read the cases would necessarily mean that the ‘more likely than not’ standard has been rejected. We believe, however, that DiFrancesco, supra, and Turner, supra, do not so hold. Those cases hold that where the sole evidence of guilt or an element of the offense is inferential, then the inferred fact must follow beyond a, reasonable doubt from the proved facts. . . . However, where there is other direct evidence of guilt or of the element of the offense, then the Commonwealth need not rely solely on inference to meet its burden. In that situation, the inference is one piece of circumstantial evidence tending to prove the ultimate fact.” (At 372).
In the instant case, the Commonwealth produced evidence which when considered along with appellant’s refusal to submit to the chemical test could amount to proof beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant was guilty of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Thus, the jury was free to convict appellant if it was more likely than not that his refusal to take the chemical test led to the conclusion that appellant was drunk. In both DiFrancesco and Turner, however, the Court under*483scored the need for the lower court to clarify the legal relevance of standardized inferences in its charge to the jury.1
The court below charged the jury that “[t]he Legislature has also provided that if a person charged with operating under the influence of intoxicants is requested by the officer to submit himself to such a test and he refuses to take such a test, then the Legislature has said that refusal to submit to a chemical test may be a factor to be considered by the jury in determining the innocence or guilt of the defendant.”
Appellant did not ask for a charge in conformity with either DiFrancesco and Turner or Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1532, 23 L.Ed.2d 57 (1969). He took an exception to the charge only on the ground that “the presumption” (more technically, if the statute is to meet constitutional muster, the inference) was “arbitrary, without sufficient reasonable basis. . . .” He did not ask the court to instruct the jury on the weight that the jury was entitled to give the inference, that the jury be satisfied that appellant was drunk beyond a reasonable doubt based on his refusal to take the chemical test or that it was more likely than not that he was drunk, based on that refusal. Nor did he object that the court’s charge allowed the jury to give whatever weight it chose to the standardized inference. Therefore, the court’s failure to charge on the weight properly accorded to the statutory inference is not before us. Cf. Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 464 Pa. 117, 346 A.2d 48 (1975); Commonwealth v. Clair, 458 Pa. 418, 326 A.2d 272 (1974).

. See, Commonwealth v. Turner, supra, 456 Pa. at 123, 317 A.2d at 301: “The evidence in this case illustrates the disutility of the evidentiary device in question. . We are satisfied that a finding of guilt would have been justified if it were based on all of the evidence produced by the Commonwealth. Relying on the inference, the trial court erroneously, under the facts of this case, instructed the jury that they could infer guilt from the evidence of the appellant’s possession alone.” See also, Commonwealth v. DiFrancesco, supra, 458 Pa. at 199, 329 A.2d at 211: “ . . . the non-compulsory nature of this inference must be brought home to the jury.”