Court Opinion

ID: 9695931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:31:33.189179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:17.460491
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I disagree with the majority’s statement that the Commonwealth could “properly show that appellant was being held on a felony charge.” Majority opinion at p. 319. What the Commonwealth could properly show was that appellant was in “detention . . . under charge or conviction of crime.” The Crimes Code, Act of December 6, 1972, P.L.1482, No. 334, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5121(e). A “crime” may be either a felony or a misdemeanor, or even, according to the opinion of a majority of this court, a summary offense, In Interest of Golden, 243 Pa.Super. 267, 365 A.2d 157 (1976) (Jacobs, J., dissenting, Spaeth, J., joining him). It is unnecessary to show that the crime was a felony. Thus, the question we must decide is whether, by gratuitously proving that the crime was a felony, the Commonwealth so prejudiced appellant that the motion for mistrial should have been granted. Considering the trial judge’s charge, I think not.
HOFFMAN, J., joins in this opinion.