Court Opinion

ID: 9754942
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:19:15.854799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:00.954075
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I agree with Judge HOFFMAN that the lower court’s lack of jurisdiction to consider appellant's petition to withdraw his guilty plea has no bearing on our ability to consider the issue on appeal.
Appellant does not challenge the adequacy of the colloquy held pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 319. Rather, he avers that “[h]e was overwhelmed by his first appearance in criminal court,” and that “his lack of education deprived him of the opportunity to intelligently make ... a decision” to plead guilty. Under normal circumstances, we would remand to allow appellant to file a petition to withdraw his plea, so that the lower court could hear testimony on his averments. Here, however, such testimony has already been taken, albeit in proceedings that were, as the majority points out, a nullity. Under these circumstances a remand and a duplicative hearing would be a waste of time and resources. Appellant was unable to persuade the lower court of the involuntariness of his plea, and the transcript of the hearing shows me no reason to overturn the lower court’s finding.
As to the claim of excessive sentence: the majority does not allude to the need for stated reasons for the sentence imposed. Commonwealth v. Kostka, 475 Pa. 85, 379 A.2d 884 (1977); Commonwealth v. Riggins, 474 Pa. 115, 377 A.2d *439140 (1977); Commonwealth v. Wertz, 252 Pa.Super. 584, 384 A.2d 933 (1978). By my reading of the record, the lower court did give reasons that, although briefly stated, are sufficient to show that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in choosing the sentence that it did.
JACOBS, President Judge, joins in this opinion.