Court Opinion

ID: 9696450
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:48:24.709727+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:22.480965
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Justice Jones:
Unlike the majority of this Court, I am of the opinion that the appeal of the Commonwealth should not be quashed. Because the order of the court below possesses the element of practical finality, I would permit an appeal therefrom to be entertained by this Court.
The thrust of the majority opinion is that, since the order of the court below granting permission to the Commonwealth for a restricted and limited psychiatric examination of the defendant was entered “without prejudice to the right of the Commonwealth to move for additional or further examinations of the defend*570ant should circumstances which may develop at or prior to trial warrant the malting of such an application . . .”, the order is not a final, appealable order.
In Commonwealth v. Byrd, 421 Pa. 513, 517-19, 219 A. 2d 293, 295, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 886 (1966), we held that a pretrial order for a neuropsychiatric examination of a person under indictment for murder was an order which the defendant could not appeal. Byrd does not preclude the Commonwealth from taking an appeal from an order which possesses an element of finality. Specifically, the Commonwealth should not be deprived of any opportunity to secure an appellate court evaluation of the validity of the restrictions and limitations contained in an order permitting psychiatric examination of the defendant who relies upon legal insanity as a defense. The court below, in its opinion, recognized that the refusal of this Court to entertain an appeal from the instant order will be deleterious to the best ■ interests of the Commonwealth, and stated: “If that rule [the Byrd rule] is applied against the Commonwealth now, it will never have been afforded the opportunity of having its contentions answered except by a court of inferior jurisdiction.”
In Commonwealth v. Novak, 384 Pa. 237, 240, 120 A. 2d 543, 544 (1956), we said, inter alia: “Where the interlocutory order, for all practical purposes, presents a somewhat final aspect, an appellate court will review it in order to safeguard basic human rights or to prevent a great injustice to a defendant.” In Commonwealth v. Bosurgi, 411 Pa. 56, 63, 190 A. 2d 304, 308 (1963), we said, inter alia: “Without a right of appeal in the Commonwealth . . . the Commonwealth is completely deprived of any opportunity to secure an appellate court evaluation of the validity of the order of suppression which forces the Commonwealth to trial without all of its evidence. The evidence suppressed may well mark the difference between success and fail*571ure in the prosecution; to deny the Commonwealth its only opportunity of securing an appellate review to determine whether the evidence was properly suppressed is highly unfair to the Commonwealth and the interests of society which it represents.” (Emphasis in original)
It is true that after the limited and restricted psychiatric examination permitted by the order of the court below, the Commonwealth might again, prior to trial, seek to obtain a further psychiatric examination. However, if that privilege were denied or were granted in a restricted manner, then, under the rationale of the majority of this Court, that order also would be interlocutory and not appealable. Moreover, if, during the course of the trial, the Commonwealth sought to have a further psychiatric examination and were denied the right thereto, again, under the rationale of the majority of this Court, such order would not only be unappealable but would unconscionably delay the trial of the case—even if an appeal were permitted. Without in any manner passing upon the validity of the order of the court below, it seems to me that the Commonwealth should, at this stage of the proceeding, have the right to test the validity of that order. Without the opportunity of appellate review, the Commonwealth would have no real opportunity to secure appellate-level review of an order which vitally affects the Commonwealth, particularly where the defense of legal insanity will be relied upon, as in the case at bar.
I would hold that the order of the court below, for all practical purposes, possesses such an element of finality that we should entertain an appeal therefrom.
Mr. Chief Justice Bell joins in this dissent.