Court Opinion

ID: 9732269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:13:44.221435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:25.743295
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the majority that the Youth Offenders Act was not impliedly repealed by adoption of the Sentencing Guidelines. I also agree that a sentence under the Youth Offenders Act is a sentence “outside” the guidelines, is subject to the written statement requirement of 42 Pa.C. S.A. § 9721(b) and 204 Pa.Code § 303.1(h), and is reviewable under 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9781(b) and 9781(c)(3). See Commonwealth v. Felix, 372 Pa.Super. 145, 154 n. 4, 539 A.2d 371, 375 n. 4 (1988).
I do not agree that: 1) if the Commonwealth fails to raise a challenge to an appellant’s failure to comply with Pa.R. A.P. 2119(f), that procedural defect is waived and will be ignored; and, 2) if the Commonwealth properly raises a challenge to an appellant’s failure to comply with Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f), appellant's challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentence must be deemed to have been waived. Those pronouncements improperly and unduly restrict this Court’s inherent discretionary authority to enforce the rules of procedure sua sponte, and to decide in our sound discretion what the proper response to a procedural defect is in a particular case. See Commonwealth v. Zeitlen, 366 Pa.Super. 78, 81-86, 530 A.2d 900, 902-04 (1987) (Kelly, J., joining and concurring); see also Commonwealth v. Graham, 372 Pa.Super. 365, 367, 539 A.2d 838, 839 (1988); Commonwealth v. Felix, supra, 372 Pa.Super. at 153, 539 A.2d at 376; Commonwealth v. Douglass, 370 Pa.Super. 104, 107, 535 A.2d 1172, 1174 (1988); Commonwealth v. Pickford, *437370 Pa.Super. 444, 453, 536 A.2d 1348, 1356-57 (1987) (Kelly, J., concurring and dissenting).
In the instant case, I would deny allowance of appeal without remanding for compliance with Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f), as appellant’s contention, that the trial court erred in considering guideline ranges determined by applying guideline provisions giving prior record score points for prior juvenile adjudications, has previously been rejected by this Court in Commonwealth v. Woodward, 368 Pa.Super. 363, 534 A.2d 478 (1987). Cf. Commonwealth v. Pickford, supra, 370 Pa.Super. at 453, 536 A.2d at 1356; accord Commonwealth v. Graham, supra, 372 Pa.Super. at 367, 539 A.2d at 839.
However, as I agree that the appeal from the discretionary aspects of sentence is frivolous, I concur in the affirmance of judgment of sentence.