Court Opinion

ID: 9692069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:39:24.550751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:30.538844
License: Public Domain

SAYLOR, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the contraband abandoned by Appellant during his flight from police was properly recovered and admitted into evidence at trial. I write only to note my agreement with the logic of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 625-26, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 1550, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991)(holding that a seizure did not occur until the police physically restrained a fleeing suspect), and of Mr. Justice Castille’s dissenting opinion in Commonwealth v. Matos, 543 Pa. 449, 473, 672 A.2d 769, 781 (1996)(Castille, J., dissenting)(stating that “[t]hat a person voluntarily chooses to flee from the ‘mere presence’ of a police officer should not immunize that person when he abandons contraband, weapons, or other evidence during the course of his flight and a police officer’s pursuit”). Thus, I believe that, in the absence of unlawful conduct on the part of the police, and even under the paradigm of a mere encounter, abandoned property, as such, should be subject to lawful recovery by the authorities.