Court Opinion

ID: 9757000
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:13:45.495334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:58:04.766752
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the grant of a new trial because the record discloses that the trial judge accepted appellant’s plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter without sufficient *385exploration of appellant’s account of his shooting of the victim to determine whether appellant had a tenable claim of self-defense and, if so, whether he intended to waive that claim. See and compare Commonwealth v. Robinson, 452 Pa. 316, 305 A.2d 354 (1973); Commonwealth v. Blackman, 446 Pa. 61, 285 A.2d 521 (1971) ; Commonwealth v. Sampson, 445 Pa. 558, 285 A.2d 480 (1971); Commonwealth v. Shank, 446 Pa. 59, 285 A.2d 479 (1971); Commonwealth v. Roundtree, 440 Pa. 199, 269 A.2d 709 (1970). I write this separate statement in order to comment upon the procedural aspects of this appeal.
Appellant has brought this appeal directly from the judgment of sentence imposed following his plea of guilty. We have but recently said, and I believe with sound reason, that a challenge to the validity of a guilty plea should be initially addressed to the trial court by means of a petition to withdraw the plea. Commonwealth v. Lee, 460 Pa. 324, 333 A.2d 749, 750n. (1975); Commonwealth v. Zakrzewski, 460 Pa. 528, 333 A.2d 898, 900 n. 1 (1975); Commonwealth v. Starr, 450 Pa. 485, 301 A.2d 592 (1973). See American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to Pleas of Guilty § 2.1 (Approved Draft, 1968). Such a petition, like a post-trial motion, enables the trial court in the first instance to pass upon the defendant’s claim of error. In the event that an evidentiary hearing is deemed necessary in order to resolve the issues raised by the defendant, the holding of such a hearing will have been expedited. If the trial court grants relief either with or without the taking of evidence, an appeal may have been avoided. If, however, an appeal is taken from either the denial or the granting of the petition to withdraw, the appellate court will have the benefit of a lower court opinion setting forth the grounds upon which its decision was made. See Rule 56 of the Rules of this Court. Thus, the requirement that a challenge to a *386guilty plea be initiated in the court which accepted the plea serves the same purposes with regard to the orderly operation of the appellate process as does the requirement that post-verdict motions be filed in cases in which full trial is had. See Commonwealth v. Carter, 463 Pa. 310, 344 A.2d 846 (1975). It is fairer to the trial court, to the appellate court and to the defendant himself to handle a guilty plea attack in this fashion; it is also more consonant with the dictates of judicial economy and normal procedure.
It is for these reasons that the Court has spoken as it has, and it is for these reasons that the Court should normally remand a case such as this to the trial court for the filing by appellant of a petition to withdraw his plea of guilty. Because, however, this appellant’s challenge to his plea is directed solely to the adequacy of the on-the-record colloquy and this appeal may therefore be decided on the record before us, interests of judicial economy would not be served by a remand at this juncture. I can thus acquiesce in the action of the Court in reaching the merits of this case, notwithstanding that the trial court has been deprived of the opportunity to discover its own mistake and take proper remedial action. See Commonwealth v. Lee, 460 Pa. 324, 333 A.2d 749, 750n. (1975).
MANDERINO, J., joins in this concurring opinion.