Court Opinion

ID: 9762766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:30:43.469451+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:37.340755
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, President Judge,
concurring:
I join Parts I and III of the majority opinion.
*605As to Part II, I agree with the majority’s conclusion that appellant’s statement was admissible although more than six hours elapsed between his arrest and preliminary arraignment. In my opinion, the Supreme Court has already determined that Commonwealth v. Davenport, 471 Pa. 278, 370 A.2d 301 (1977), does not require suppression of a blurted out statement. In Commonwealth v. Jenkins, 500 Pa. 144, 454 A.2d 1004 (1982), the Court said that Davenport did not “establish[ ] a rigid standard impervious of the purposes it was intended to serve,” and that “[a]t no time did [the Court] wish to cut off freely volunteered confessions.” Id., 500 Pa. at 150, 454 A.2d at 1007. Suppression of appellant’s statement would not further “[Davenport’s ] primary purpose ... to discourage the obtaining of incriminatory information through coercive means.” Id.
In any case, Davenport has for practical purposes been overruled, albeit not formally. Various of the Justices of the Supreme Court have repeatedly said that the rule enunciated in Davenport is unsatisfactory. See Commonwealth v. Keasley, 501 Pa. 461, 464, 462 A.2d 216, 217 (1983) (McDERMOTT, J., concurring) (“Any departure from a rigid application of the six-hour rule of Davenport [ ] is a step in the right direction.”); Commonwealth v. Jenkins, supra, 500 Pa. at 152, 454 A.2d at 1008 (McDERMOTT, J., concurring) (“We must therefore discard Davenport and return to a more flexible approach.”); Commonwealth v. Bennett, 498 Pa. 656, 658, 450 A.2d 970, 971 (1982) (FLAHERTY, J., joined by HUTCHINSON, J., concurring) (“a delay of more than six hours should not per se render any prearraignment statement inadmissible”); Commonwealth v. Blady, 492 Pa. 285, 286, 424 A.2d 864, 864 (1980) (LARSEN, J., joined by FLAHERTY, J., dissenting) (expressing dissatisfaction with mechanical application of rule). While these individual expressions do not themselves constitute an overruling of Davenport, it is nevertheless significant that they have been uttered by a majority of the members of the Court. What persuades me that Davenport has for practical purposes been overruled is the Court’s decision in Common*606wealth v. Travaglia, 502 Pa. 474, 467 A.2d 288 (1983). There the Court by ZAPPALA, J., joined by LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, and HUTCHINSON, JJ., found exigent circumstances, but added in dictum that “the continuing vitality of the Davenport rule as a whole is subject to speculation ...” id. at 490, 467 A.2d at 296 (citing the cases I have just cited). Neither the concurring opinion, by NIX, J., nor the dissenting opinion, by ROBERTS, C.J., took issue with this dictum. I agree, however, with the proposition implicit in the majority opinion, that until Davenport has been expressly overruled, it must be followed.
WIEAND and TAMILIA, JJ., join in this concurring opinion by SPAETH, President Judge.