Court Opinion

ID: 9756020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:03:26.971702+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:14.070447
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
Although I agree that we must reverse the judgment of sentence on the charge of conspiracy, I dissent from that *51portion of the majority’s opinion affirming the judgments of sentence on appellant’s remaining convictions. The proper procedure in a case such as this, in which an invalid conviction on one count may have influenced the sentence on another conviction, is to remand for resentencing on the valid conviction. Commonwealth v. Lockhart, 223 Pa.Super. 60, 296 A.2d 883 (1972). See also Commonwealth v. Stufflet, 276 Pa.Super. 120, 419 A.2d 124 (1980); Commonwealth v. Starkes, 268 Pa.Super. 108, 407 A.2d 853 (1979); Commonwealth v. Rios, 246 Pa.Super. 479, 371 A.2d 937 (1977). Although we need not remand for resentencing where an invalid conviction clearly could not have influenced the lower court’s sentences on the remaining convictions. Commonwealth v. Crowson, 267 Pa.Super. 46, 405 A.2d 1295 (1979); Commonwealth v. Senyszyn, 266 Pa.Super. 480, 405 A.2d 535 (1979); Commonwealth v. Moore, 261 Pa.Super. 92, 395 A.2d 1328 (1978), this is not such a case. The majority’s conclusion that a remand “would only result in the same sentence,” at 1350, is a form of judicial speculation in which we should not engage. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of sentence for conspiracy, vacate the sentences on the remaining convictions, and remand for resentencing on the valid convictions.