Court Opinion

ID: 9709039
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:38:42.632901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:45.524676
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
dissenting:
The majority states the issue as whether the trial judge could “[maintain] his own objectivity in the face of improper exposure to prejudicial evidence.” Majority opinion at 843. If that were the issue, I should agree with the majority that this case is within the rule of Commonwealth v. Conti, 236 Pa.Super. 488, 345 A.2d 238 (1975). However, that is not the issue; appellant does not argue that the judge was exposed to evidence that he should not have been exposed to; indeed appellant could not so argue, for the judge did not hear any evidence he should not have heard. Instead, the issue is whether the judge should have started the trial at all. I think it plain that he should not have, but should instead have recused himself and sent the case to another court room, for trial before another judge.
When appellant appeared for trial in State prison clothing (purple pants and a matching shirt, with a number on it, N.T. 4), two facts were at once established: first, appellant had been convicted of a crime; he was not a detentioner, presumed innocent and in a county jail only because he could not raise bail; and second, the crime had been a bad one. With these facts established, it was the trial judge’s duty to grant appellant’s request that the case be continued for trial before another judge.1
*385This duty was established by Commonwealth v. Goodman, 454 Pa. 358, 311 A.2d 652 (1973). There a judge sitting without a jury convicted the defendant of unlawful possession of a narcotic drug. Before the trial there had been a suppression hearing, at which the judge had heard evidence that the defendant was a trafficker in narcotics. The defendant asked the judge to disqualify himself as trial judge, but the request was denied. In holding that the request “was proper and should have been honored,” 454 Pa. at 362, 311 A.2d at 654, the Supreme Court said:
If it is established that the information received during the pre-trial proceeding would have been incompetent in the subsequent proceeding and that it was of a sufficiently inflammatory nature to arouse a prejudice against the defendant he need not demonstrate that the information actually influenced the court’s actions. We are impressed with the wisdom of the ABA § 1.7 Standards Relating to the Function of the Trial Judge which provides: “The trial judge should recuse himself whenever he has any doubt as to his ability to preside impartially in a criminal case or whenever he believes his impartiality can be reasonably questioned.” (Emphasis supplied). We have every confidence that the trial judges of this Commonwealth are sincere in their efforts to avoid consideration of incompetent inflammatory evidence in reaching their judgments but we also are acutely aware that the appearance of bias or prejudice can be as damaging to public confidence in the administration of justice as would be the actual presence of either of these elements. We are equally anxious to avoid the curtailment of the defense in the presentation of testimony in support of pre-trial motions because of the fear that information disclosed therein may adversely affect the outcome of subsequent proceedings. These considerations lead us to conclude that a judge should honor a request for recusation where prejudicial information is received in a pre-trial proceeding that *386would be otherwise inadmissible during the trial of the cause. 454 Pa. at 361-62, 311 A.2d at 654.
It is, of course, true that here the information received by the trial judge — that appellant was a State convict — was not received during a pre-trial suppression hearing, but that is of no moment; the Supreme Court did not confine its holding only to a suppression hearing but included any, and every, “pre-trial proceeding.” Where, as here, a case is called for trial so that a colloquy may be conducted to determine whether the defendant will waive a jury, a “pretrial proceeding” occurs.
Also of no moment is the fact, heavily relied upon by the majority, that here the evidence proved to be “overwhelming.” Majority slip opinion at 4. That the evidence would be overwhelming could not be known until after the trial; the point of Goodman is that a trial should not start if before it starts the trial judge has received “information . that would be otherwise inadmissible during the trial . . . .” 454 Pa. at 362, 311 A.2d at 654. Here the trial judge did receive such information (the Commonwealth has neither shown nor even argued that evidence of appellant’s prior conviction would have been within one of the exceptions to the general rule that evidence of a prior conviction is inadmissible).
Finally, the fact that the trial judge said he would not be influenced by his receipt of this information is of no consequence. In the first place, the Supreme Court held in Goodman that the judge . . should recuse himself whenever he has any doubt as to his ability to preside impartially . . . 454 Pa. at 361, 311 A.2d at 654. If a judge knows that the defendant who stands before him is a State convict, and still does not have any doubt of his ability to preside impartially, he is over-estimating his abilities. Before the trial starts, the judge knows nothing of the evidence that will be offered. For all he knows, the evidence may present a most difficult issue of credibility, for example, a weak identification by only the victim against a most persuasive alibi defense. No judge can be sure before *387hearing any evidence that his decision will not be affected by his knowledge that the defendant is a State convict. In the second place, the Supreme Court further held in Goodman that the trial should not start, whatever the judge’s estimate of his ability to preside impartially, because “the appearance of bias or prejudice can be as damaging to public confidence in the administration of justice as would be the actual presence of these elements.” 454 Pa. at 361, 311 A.2d at 654 (footnote omitted). Here, the appearance of prejudice could hardly be more striking. I know of no case — except this one — in which we have countenanced an order requiring a defendant to stand trial in prison clothes. Appellant’s counsel was entirely correct in his argument to the trial judge, that such a trial “is unbecoming to our system of justice in the United States.”2 The trial was unbecoming not only because anyone observing it would wonder whether the judge would be able to preside impartially. It was also unbecoming because of the unnecessary, and purposeless, humiliation inflicted upon appellant. Thus in Commonwealth v. Keller, 216 Pa.Super. 193, 197-98, 264 A.2d 407, 409-10 (1970), Judge HOFFMAN said, for a plurality of this court:
The wearing of prison garb in the courtroom also demeans the defendant in his own mind. It makes him feel that, although presumed to be innocent, he has already lost his dignity by the very fact of arrest and charge. It separates him from the ordinary defendant who may appear in his best “Sunday suit” and fittings. The defendant is thereby placed in a psychological, emotional disadvantage.
This consideration has been recognized by the Colorado Supreme Court. In Eddy v. People, 115 Colo. 488, 174 P.2d 717 (1946), the court reviewed the conviction of a defendant who was required to appear in the courtroom attired in his prison uniform with the words “County Jail” lettered thereon. In reversing, the court said: “We believe the mind of a prisoner would be as much disturbed *388and his mental faculties as much confused and embarrassed by carrying on his person such brand of incarceration [the uniform bearing the words ‘County Jail’], as here required, as by physical shackles, and that a prejudice against a prisoner might equally well be created thereby in the minds of the jurors. It is difficult to find any distinction, as to the humiliation involved, between requiring a prisoner to wear the words ‘County Jail’ branded upon his clothing and requiring him to wear them on a placard attached about his neck; either is a mockery, an indignity and a humiliation not consonant with innocence and freedom. The presumption of innocence requires the garb of innocence, and regardless of the ultimate outcome, or the evidence awaiting presentation, every defendant is entitled to be brought before the court with the appearance, dignity, and self-respect of a free and innocent man, except as the necessary safeguard and decorum of the court may otherwise require.” 174 P.2d at 718-719. See also Commonwealth v. Reid, 123 Pa.Super. 459, 467 — 468, 187 A. 263 (1936).
The judgment of sentence should be reversed and a new trial ordered.

. The Commonwealth suggests in its brief, at 10, footnote 3, that the request was only for a continuance, “to obtain civilian clothing.” The suggestion is disingenuous. Appellant’s counsel said nothing about his client obtaining civilian clothing. Rather, counsel specifically based his request for a continuance on the grounds that his client’s appearance in State prison clothes “has prejudicial implications to a finder of fact,” N.T. 4-5; that to proceed to trial was “inherently unfair and prejudicial, and not only that, it is unbecoming to our system of justice in the United States,” N.T. 6; and that, the trial judge having seen his client, the prejudice could not be waived but “still remains,” N.T. 7. It is therefore clear that although counsel couched his request in terms of a “continuance” rather than “recusal”, what he sought was trial before another judge. The trial judge understood this, for in denying the request he said that appellant’s *385clothing would have “absolutely no effect on this Court’s determination,” N.T. 8.

. See footnote 1, supra.