Court Opinion

ID: 9543026
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:41:22.96171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:33.586114
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the decision to affirm the judgment of sentence. I am unable to conclude that appellant’s sentence in this case was so disproportionate to her crime that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Nevertheless, I feel constrained to observe that it strains both logic and reason to impose a more serious penalty for aggravated *247assault than for attempted murder. This is what motivated the Commonwealth to charge appellant with aggravated assault rather than attempted murder, despite the fact that appellant’s intent to kill her estranged husband could not have been more clearly demonstrated. In my judgment, aggravated assault is a lesser included offense of attempted murder, see: Commonwealth v. Anderson, 416 Pa.Super. 203, 610 A.2d 1042 (1992) (en banc) (Wieand, J., Dissenting); and, therefore, it should not carry a more severe penalty than attempted murder.
I am also unable to discern the legislature’s logic in imposing a mandatory minimum sentence for visibly possessing a firearm during the commission of an aggravated assault, while not imposing a mandatory minimum sentence for the visible possession of a firearm during an attempted murder.
Perhaps it would be advisable for the legislature to reevaluate the grading scheme for the offenses of aggravated assault and attempted murder, as well as the exclusion of attempted murder from the purview of the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions.
BECK, J., joins in this concurring opinion.