Court Opinion

ID: 9756948
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:10:42.434015+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:33.646504
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(dissenting).
The Court is accurate in stating that our recent decision in Commonwealth v. Abrams, 461 Pa. 327, 336 A.2d 308 (1975) is directly on point and would compel reversal of appellant’s conviction for contempt of court. In my view, however, our decision in Abrams was wrongly decided and should be overruled. I join in Mr. Justice NIX’s separate dissenting opinion expressing this view, and submit these additional reasons as to why Abrams, and therefore today’s majority opinion also, are mistaken.
Abrams held as it did, viz., that counsel was required in a summary proceeding for criminal contempt, because we read Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 32 L.Ed.2d 530 (1972) to require that result. My further study satisfies me that we read Argersinger too broadly. Argersinger, a sequel to Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963), extended the right to counsel to any offense, whether classified as *277a felony or a misdemeanor, if a term of imprisonment could be imposed upon conviction of the offense. Speaking for the majority of the Court, Mr. Justice Douglas stated: “We hold . . . that absent a knowing and intelligent waiver, no person may be imprisoned for any offense, whether classified as petty, misdemeanor, or felony, unless he was represented by counsel at his trial.” 407 U.S. at 37, 92 S.Ct. at 2012, 32 L.Ed.2d at 538. Argersinger, like Gideon, was concerned solely with a criminal trial as it is generally conceived, and I am now satisfied that the broad language of its holding must be read in that context. None of the opinions filed in that case so much as mentions the offense of contempt of court.
Contempt of court committed in the presence of the court has never been considered as a normal offense nor the subject of a normal criminal trial. The proper procedure in cases involving direct criminal contempt was set forth succinctly in Cooke v. United States, 267 U.S. 517, 45 S.Ct. 390, 69 L.Ed. 767, 773 (1924). The contempt there involved was committed by the contemnor through a letter to the trial judge. The Supreme Court found that this conduct did not qualify as a “direct” contempt in that it had not been committed in open court during judicial proceedings. Therefore, held the Court, the accused was entitled to the usual due process amenities— notice of the charges against him, notice of the time and place for hearing, opportunity to be heard and the right to representation by counsel. 267 U.S. at 537, 45 S.Ct. at 395, 69 L.Ed. at 774. Contrariwise, said Chief Justice Taft in dictum,, where the contumacious conduct is committed in the presence of the court, the due process requirements are less rigid and there is no right to counsel.
“To preserve order in the courtroom for the proper conduct of business, the court must act instantly to suppress disturbance or violence or physical obstruction or disrespect to the court, when occurring in open court. There is no need of evidence or assistance of *278counsel before punishment, because the court has seen the offense. Such summary vindication of the court’s dignity and authority is necessary. It has always been so in the courts of the common law, and the punishment imposed is due process of law.” 267 U.S. at 534, 45 S.Ct. at 394, 69 L.Ed. 773.
This statement of the federal law has never been questioned; indeed, Cooke was but recently cited with apparent approval by the Supreme Court in United States v. Wilson, 421 U.S. 309, 95 S.Ct. 1802, 44 L.Ed.2d 186 (1975).* These principles, relative to direct criminal contempt, have likewise been recognized in the courts of Pennsylvania. In Levine Contempt Case, 372 Pa. 612, 618, 95 A.2d 222, 225 (1973), this Court said:
“Generally speaking, one is guilty of contempt when his conduct tends to bring the authority and administration of the law into disrespect. The right to punish for such contempt is adherent in all courts. When it is committed in its presence the court may, in punishing the offender, act of its own knowledge without further process, proof, or examination.”
It is true, of course, that in Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 194, 88 S.Ct. 1477, 20 L.Ed.2d 522 (1968), the Supreme Court held that the offense of criminal contempt of court is sufficiently similar to any other type of criminal offense as to come within the Sixth Amendment guarantee of right to trial by jury, provided the offense is punishable by imprisonment of six months or more. Petty con-*279tempts continue not to require a jury trial. I have no doubt that any criminal contempt proceeding as to which the right to trial by jury attaches carries with it also the right to counsel. This is because, in such a case, the consequences of conviction are simply too harsh to justify disposition by summary adjudication, and therefore, normal due process rights are to be afforded the contemnor.
Where, however, the offense of direct criminal contempt is not punishable by more than six months imprisonment, as in Wilson and the case at bar, the use of the court’s power of summary disposition is appropriate, and only minimal due process rights attach. Justification for this is found in the same factors which legitimatize summary disposition at all — the necessity of preserving the integrity and orderly progression of the judicial proceedings, Wilson, supra 421 U.S. at 314, 95 S.Ct. at 1805, 44 L.Ed.2d at 192, 193, and the fact that the contemptuous conduct occurs in the presence of the court, Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974).
Because summary contempt is a special kind of sanction to be imposed only in rare situations, it should not be employed lightly or except as a last resort. In the words of Chief Justice Taft, “. . . [I]ts exercise is a delicate one, and care is needed to avoid arbitrary or oppressive conclusions.” Cooke v. United States, supra 267 U.S. at 539, 45 S.Ct. at 395, 69 L.Ed. at 775. See Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, supra 418 U.S. at 513-14, 94 S.Ct. at 2692, 41 L.Ed. at 920; Harris v. United States, 382 U.S. 162, 86 S.Ct. 352, 15 L.Ed.2d 240 (1965). Consequently, in a case such as the one at bar, the trial judge should be meticulous to make sure that the silent witness has “an opportunity to speak in his own behalf in the nature of a right of allocution.” See Groppi v. Leslie, 404 U.S. 466, 504, 92 S.Ct. 582, 587, 30 L.Ed.2d 632, 639 (1972). The judge should, of course, also be satisfied that the refusal to answer questions is truly contuma*280cious, and does not stem from any inability to articulate or to communicate the basis for his belief that the maintenance of silence is necessary to protect his interests. The instant record adequately demonstrates that this was done. Finally, the necessity for the drastic summary procedure must be clear. Where, as in Wilson and in the case at bar, the witness’s refusal to testify is clearly disruptive of the proceedings in that his testimony is essential to the prosecution (or the defense) I believe the requirement of necessity has been met. Thus I would affirm judgment of the court of common pleas.

 United States v. Wilson, 421 U.S. 309, 95 S.Ct. 1802, 44 L.Ed.2d 186 (1975), was concerned with the application of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 42(a) which sets forth the conditions under which the summary disposition of criminal contempt is appropriate. The majority opinion in Wilson makes clear, however, that the rule is declaratory of the law as it existed at the time of its promulgation, citing Cooke. While one of the contemnors in Wilson did have counsel present at the time of the adjudication of contempt, it does not appear that counsel participated in the proceedings, and there is nothing whatever to suggest that the result in Wilson would have been different had no counsel been available.