Court Opinion

ID: 9762165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:14:29.664678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:31.327502
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
dissenting:
As persuasive as may be the expression of the majority view and as desirable as the result may, for the majority, seem to be, I am compelled, most respectfully, to dissent. The issue, in my view, is whether the Commonwealth may proceed to the piecemeal prosecution of two separate crimes even though both crimes sound in unlawful possession and were uncovered during a single search. I am of the view that the prosecution may not proceed in such a fashion but was required to prosecute appellant on both charges at the same time.
The rationale for the compulsory joinder rule, as announced by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and codified in section 110, was described in Commonwealth v. Hude, 500 Pa. 482, 458 A.2d 177 (1983), by the eminent Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., as follows:
*472The compulsory joinder rule set forth in Campana I and II and the provisions of section 110 were designed to serve two distinct policy considerations: (1) to protect a person accused of crimes from governmental harassment of being forced to undergo successive trials for offenses stemming from the same criminal episode; and (2) as a matter of judicial administration and economy, to assure finality without unduly burdening the judicial process by repetitious litigation. See Commonwealth v. Stewart, supra, 493 Pa. [24] at 29, 425 A.2d [346] at 348 [1981]; Commonwealth v. Holmes, 480 Pa. 536, 541, 391 A.2d 1015, 1017 (1978); Commonwealth v. Tarver, supra, 467 Pa. [401] at 408, 357 A.2d [539] at 542 [1976]. “By requiring compulsory joinder of all charges arising from ... (the same criminal episode), a defendant need only once ‘run the gauntlet’ and confront the awesome resources of the state.”
Id. 500 Pa. at 489, 458 A.2d at 180 quoting Commonwealth v. Campana, (Campana I), 452 Pa. 233, 251, 304 A.2d 432, 440-441, vacated and remanded, 414 U.S. 808, 94 S.Ct. 73, 38 L.Ed.2d 44 (1973).
The statute that is the focus of our attention in this appeal, section 110, provides:
§ 110 When prosecution barred by former prosecution for different offense
Although a prosecution is for a violation of a different provision of the statutes than a former prosecution or is based on different facts, it is barred by such former prosecution under the following circumstances:
(1) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal or in a conviction as defined in section 109 of this title (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for:
(i) any offense of which the defendant could have been convicted on the first prosecution;
(ii) any offense based on the same conduct or arising from the same criminal episode, if such offense was known to the appropriate prosecuting officer at the *473time of the commencement of the first trial and was within the jurisdiction of a single court unless the court ordered a separate trial of the charge of such offense; or
(iii) the same conduct, unless:
(A) the offense of which the defendant was formerly convicted or acquitted and the offense for which he is subsequently prosecuted each requires proof of a fact not required by the other and the law defining each of such offenses is intended to prevent a substantially different harm or evil; or
(B) the second offense was not consummated when the former trial began.
(2) The former prosecution was terminated, after the indictment was found, by an acquittal or by a final order or judgment for the defendant which has not been set aside, reversed or vacated and which acquittal, final order or judgment necessarily required a determination inconsistent with a fact which must be established for conviction of the second offense.
(3) The former prosecution was improperly terminated, as improper termination is defined in section 109 of this title (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for an offense of which the defendant could have been convicted had the former prosecution not been improperly terminated.
Since (1) the drug offenses were known to the appropriate authorities at the time of the commencement of the first trial, (2) the charges were within the jurisdiction of a single court and (3) the court did not order separate trials, section 110(l)(ii) will bar the second prosecution if it is determined that the violations charged in the first and second prosecutions were based on the “same criminal episode”.
It strikes me that the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Stewart, 493 Pa. 24, 425 A.2d 346 (1981), is binding upon this court and our consideration of whether the offenses herein arose from “the same *474criminal episode”. The police there stopped and frisked an accused and found a pistol on his person as well as ten glassine packets containing what later proved to be heroin lying near him on the street. A criminal complaint for carrying a firearm without a license was filed on the day of the arrest and approximately one month after the arrest appellant was charged with possession of heroin. The Commonwealth first brought appellant to trial on the firearms charge, and it was only after he pleaded guilty and was sentenced that the Commonwealth indicted appellant on the heroin charge. Our Supreme Court declared that section 110 was applicable and that “the two offenses with which appellant was charged were clearly part of the same 'episode’: appellant’s crimes consisted of the possession of heroin and a gun at precisely the same time, 9:20 p.m. on April 25, 1974.” Id., 493 Pa. at 28, 425 A.2d at 348.
While the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Stewart examined the commission of two distinct violations of the Crimes Code, both violations shared an essential characteristic, namely, possession of a prohibited item, specifically, a controlled substance and an unlicensed firearm. Our Supreme Court then concluded that the “same criminal episode” requirement of section 110 had been met. The instant situation greatly resembles Stewart since the two distinct violations of the Crimes Code here charged also share an essential characteristic, namely, possession of a prohibited item, specifically, stolen goods and illegal drugs. As a result, application of the Stewart decision requires that we hold that the two distinct violations of the Crimes Code here charged were the “same criminal episode”.
The majority asserts the fact pattern in this case is to be distinguished from the pattern in that Stewart case but I fail to observe even a whisper of difference. Nor do I accept the contention that possession of stolen goods sounds in theft. If the prosecution did not see fit to charge appellant with the theft, surely this court is not free to include such a charge in the rationale it would assemble to *475permit the prosecution to evade its responsibility and duty to have joined these charges for trial.
It should also be noted that our Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Muffley, 493 Pa. 32, 425 A.2d 350 (1981), expressed a similar view. The defendant there was arrested for possession of marijuana, and later charged with possession of LSD which had been discovered on the body of appellant when he was searched at the police station following his arrest on the marijuana charge. Although the Commonwealth did not argue that the two crimes were separate criminal episodes, our Supreme Court noted that such an argument, if raised, would not have been meritorious.1
Justice Nix in Hude, supra, discussed the rationale for the interpretation that the Supreme Court had supplied to the term “same criminal episode” when he stated:
The interpretation of the term “single criminal episode” must not be approached from a hypertechnical and rigid perspective which defeats the purposes for which it was created. Cf. Commonwealth v. Jenkins, [500] Pa. [144], 454 A.2d 1004 (1982) (Davenport rule to be interpreted to “... accomplish the purposes sought to be achieved by the requirement of a prompt arraignment.”) Thus, where a number of charges are logically and/or temporally related and share common issues of law and fact, a single criminal episode exists, and separate trials would involve substantial duplication and waste of scarce judicial resources. In such cases, failure to consolidate will bar successive prosecutions.”
Id. 500 Pa. at 494, 458 A.2d at 183. Nor does such an interpretation of the term impose an unreasonable burden on the Commonwealth since the Commonwealth had alternate procedures available to avoid any adverse application of the rule: (1) the Commonwealth could have requested the court to grant separate trials, see 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 110(l)(ii); *476or (2) the Commonwealth could have requested an extension of time within which to try both cases on the ground that such an extension was needed in order to enable the Commonwealth to comply with its duty to consolidate the charges. See Commonwealth v. Stewart, supra 493 Pa. at 29, 425 A.2d at 349. The Commonwealth here failed to employ either of these alternate procedures and cannot now attempt to circumvent the mandate of section 110 by prosecuting appellant on charges that should have been brought at the same time as the charge of receiving stolen property.
I would, therefore, reverse.

. The Commonwealth argued in Muffley that appellant waived any section 110 objection by failing to move for consolidation of the two informations.