Court Opinion

ID: 9746310
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:11:34.200789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:11.961065
License: Public Domain

BECK, Judge,
concurring:
At first blush, I find appellant’s argument compelling. Could the telephone become an instrument of crime if used by an individual to harass another? Is a computer an instrument of crime if used to facilitate fraud? Perhaps a megaphone is an instrument of crime if it is used to incite a riot. These possibilities, and those raised by appellant, make me hesitate to embrace such a broad interpretation of the PIC statute. However, I agree with my colleagues that we, the judiciary, are simply not at liberty to do anything else.
I believe that the amended statute is onerous and ill-conceived, but recognize that the task of fashioning a law that punishes the offender who wields a baseball bat, but spares the graffiti artist, is one that can be accomplished only by the legislature. While I concede our inability to act in this instance, I encourage the legislature to reconsider the amended PIC statute. Already this court has seen an increase in the Commonwealth’s use of the “new law.” PIC charges have been instituted not only against appellant, but also against defendants charged with drunk driving.
I urge the legislature to reconsider the amended statute to determine whether it intended such an expanded application. I find it interesting that in encouraging his colleagues to delete the term “commonly” from the statute, Senator Stewart Greenleaf made specific reference to the Ngow case. Noting the increased use of baseball bats in lieu of firearms, the senator stated: “I think it is important for us to get tough with violent criminals, and this legislation would do that.” S.B. 729, Act No. 1995-27, Comments of Senator Greenleaf (March 1995) (emphasis supplied).
In addition to the baseball bat-wielding defendants in Ngow, it is reasonable to conclude that the senator had in mind the criminal who beat his. victim to death with a pool cue, Commonwealth v. Durrant, 501 Pa. 147, 460 A.2d 782 (1983), or the one who committed murder using a razor blade. Commonwealth v. Rodriquez, 316 Pa.Super. 203, 462 A.2d 1310 (1983). However, the legislature should consider whether, in amending the statute, it intended to include individuals such as appellant in the group of “violent criminals” with whom it wanted to “get tough.”
I believe the broad reach of the statute is not only onerous, but unnecessary. In cases such as those raised by the majority, i.e., *1185where the conduct of the defendant causes “catastrophic disasters and multiple deaths,” the addition of a PIC charge to the list of serious crimes such a defendant faces will be so insignificant as to render it meaningless. In circumstances such as those raised by this case, i.e., a single incident of graffiti, the addition of a PIC charge (and the potential for increased punishment will be far too significant, making it excessive.1
I do not believe that our lawmakers “resorted to [the] broad, non-specific legislation” of the current PIC statute in order to deal with sophisticated, technical crime schemes, nor that they sought to address issues of internet pornography and national security; they merely wished to make a baseball bat, when used as a murder weapon, an instrument of crime. Because they have done significantly more than that, I recommend that they reexamine the law.

. A conviction for graffiti exposes an individual to a maximum punishment of one year in prison, but only if the damage caused by the graffiti exceeds $150.00. Otherwise, the individual has committed a summary offense and is subject to incarceration for a maximum period of ninety (90) days. 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 1104(3); 1105; 3304(b). A PIC conviction exposes an individual to a maximum punishment of five years in prison. 18 Pa.C.S.A §§ 907; 1104(1).