Court Opinion

ID: 9695737
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:28:23.52688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:15.869161
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
The charge is that appellant hindered the apprehension of a robber. The Commonwealth proved that there was a robbery by the robber’s own testimony. The robber and appellant were accomplices, for they planned the robbery together, and agreed that the robber should use appellant’s home as her base of operations.
Appellant argues for a rule that a defendant may not be convicted when the only evidence of the corpus delicti is uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. The majority seems to accept at least the possibility of such a rule, for its opinion responds to appellant’s argument by saying that the rule does not apply here “because . the perpetrator of the robbery was not appellant’s accomplice in the crime of hindering apprehension with which he was charged.” Majority opinion at 330.
Regarding the case (for the sake of discussion) as does the majority, I cannot accept the majority’s reasoning. In order to make out its case the Commonwealth had to prove that appellant intended “to hinder the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of another for crime . . . .” Act of Dec. 6, 1972, P.L. 1482, No. 334, § 1, 18 Pa.C.S. § 5105. The “crime” was the *138robbery. Thus, when the Commonwealth proved the robbery by the testimony of the robber, it proved an essential element of the charge against appellant by the testimony of an accomplice. It seems odd to say that if appellant had been charged with robbery, the robber would have been an accomplice, but because appellant is charged with a crime arising from and dependent upon the robbery, the robber is not an accomplice. So far as concerns considerations of whether criminal responsibility should be imposed, the two cases are the same. I therefore see no reason to apply one rule to one case, and another rule to the other case.
I nevertheless agree with the majority’s result. As appellant concedes, there is no general rule in Pennsylvania that forbids a jury to convict solely on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. Commonwealth v. Bradley, 449 Pa. 19, 295 A.2d 842 (1972); Commonwealth v. Bruno, 316 Pa. 394, 175 A. 518 (1934); Commonwealth v. Didio, 212 Pa.Super. 51, 239 A.2d 883 (1968). I see no reason (nor does appellant suggest any) for a special rule as to the proof of the corpus delicti. We have before, in dictum, rejected appellant’s contention: “Proof of the corpus delicti in [this] case . . . does not rest wholly on the testimony of an accomplice. And it would be no objection if it did. The testimony of an accomplice may relate to any of the facts in issue including corpus delicti.” Commonwealth v. Brown, 158 Pa.Super. 226, 227, 44 A.2d 524, 525 (1945). Here, we need only convert this dictum to a holding. Thereby we should avoid becoming entangled in the implication of the majority’s opinion, that proof of the corpus delicti may not rest wholly on the testimony of an accomplice.
HOFFMAN, J., joins in this opinion.