Court Opinion

ID: 9753000
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:49:50.538687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:27.222685
License: Public Domain

*434LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the Opinion in Support of Affirmance authored by Mr. Justice Flaherty but write separately to emphasize that the United States Supreme Court’s decision In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967), directly impacts on the question presented in this case.
In Gault, a juvenile, who like Harvey Davis, was previously adjudged delinquent and on probation, was taken into custody on an additional charge of making lewd telephone calls to a neighbor. The trial court conducted a hearing in which the recipient of the call did not testify. Instead, a probation officer testified concerning the alleged incident as it was related to him by the victim. Although Gault was on probation, the proceedings for which he was brought before the court and charged with additional misconduct were not characterized as “dispositional” in nature. The Supreme Court held that in juvenile proceedings, “a determination of delinquency and an order of commitment to a state institution cannot be sustained in the absence of sworn testimony subjected to the opportunity for cross-examination”. Id. at 57, 87 S.Ct. at 1459, 18 L.Ed.2d at 562-563.
In this case, Harvey Davis, was brought before the court on a motion to amend probation. During that proceeding he was confronted with the hearsay allegation that he had committed additional misconduct of a serious nature (threatening his stepfather with a knife). Fairness and due process require that a person standing in judgment for such misconduct be permitted to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him.
In Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 782, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656, 661-662 (1973), the United States Supreme Court recognized that “probation revocation, like parole revocation is not a stage of a criminal prosecution, but does result in the loss of liberty ”. That Court, therefore, held that a probationer like a parolee is entitled to a preliminary hearing and a final revocation hearing under the conditions *435specified in Morrissey v. Brewer, [408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972)] — those conditions being the minimum requirements of due process including the right to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses. If the Constitution compels the right to confrontation in “adult” probation revocation hearings, no less is required with respect to a child in a “juvenile” probation revocation hearing predicated upon allegations of additional misconduct.
I also write separately due to the majority’s undue emphasis on the word “solely” in stating that “fundamental due process requires that no adjudication be based solely upon hearsay evidence” and that “the deprivation of life, liberty, or property solely upon hearsay evidence offends our sense of justice and our concept of due process” Majority op. at p. 916 (emphasis in original). I part with the majority’s analysis to the extent that it suggests that a person can be deprived of liberty where hearsay evidence is offered in conjunction with “some other evidence”.
The long established rule regarding the admissibility of hearsay evidence is that,
“the proponent of such testimony must point to some exception to the hearsay rule which would justify the court in departing from the traditional notion that a party should not be deprived of the guaranty of truthfulness resulting from the oath of the declarant and the opportunity to cross-examine the declarant in order to test the accuracy of the observations upon which it is based”.
Carney v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 428 Pa. 489, 240 A.2d 71 (1968). Certainly, hearsay evidence which does not fall into any one of the recognized exceptions to the hearsay rule is inadmissible at any criminal or quasi-criminal proceeding, juvenile or adult.