Court Opinion

ID: 9649133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:43:07.811227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:08.057725
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
As to the majority’s disposition of appellant’s claim that the Commonwealth failed to provide him with statements and reports concerning police interviews of Commonwealth witnesses who testified at trial, I agree that the case should be remanded to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing. I do not, however, agree with the reasoning advanced by the majority in support of that result.
The Commonwealth has a duty to provide the defense with the prosecution’s records of verbatim or substantially verbatim pre-trial statements of witnesses who testify at trial. Commonwealth v. Wade, 480 Pa. 160, 389 A.2d 560 (1978). The majority, in what it terms a “minor clarificar tion” of this rule, states that the prosecution must now produce for defense counsel “any notes, reports, or written records relating to interviews with witnesses ...” majority opinion at 1288 (emphasis supplied). This is not a minor clarification, but a major revision of the duties previously imposed upon the prosecution in Commonwealth v. Wade, supra. And, this sweeping language will permit review of the entire file, including the investigator’s or policemen’s *477impressions and opinions and the prosecutor’s strategy, since all of these matters could be derived from the pre-trial investigative interviews and thus may be considered as “relating to” those interviews. Such a vast intrusion into the state’s files is unwarranted, and I would follow and adhere to the standards set forth in Wade.
In the instant case, the Commonwealth has provided this Court with the police reports in question, and it is evident that they contain verbatim and substantially verbatim statements. I therefore agree that the case must be remanded to the trial court for a hearing on whether the Commonwealth’s failure to make these reports available to appellant’s counsel was harmless error.
KAUFFMAN, J., joins this concurring opinion.