Court Opinion

ID: 9643913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:43:29.049355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:05.515323
License: Public Domain

BROSKY, J.,
concurring.
¶ 1 The majority’s analysis is a logically flawless and “fair” application of legal principle to the present actual scenario. From a legal perspective, this is indeed admirable in light of the result, which would likely seem to many to be an undesirable one. Moreover, the ex post facto doctrine, and its cousin here, retroactivity of judicial decisions, is not a conceptually easy doctrine, as the many cases that have struggled to apply it seemingly attest. The majority has performed their legal duty with competent aplomb, thus I join the decision. However, I write separately to question, rhetorically, whether the principles in question should apply to the present scenario.
¶ 2 The majority rightfully notes that, in actuality, the present case is not a true ex post facto case, but a due process notice case that has its origin in ex post facto doctrine. The ex post facto clause is basically directed at governmental/legislative lawmaking. In the present case, the controversy relates to application of precedent that overruled prior precedent. Thus, in effect, Commonwealth v. Frisbie, 506 Pa. 461, 485 A.2d 1098 (1984), found that the law had been previously applied incorrectly. As stated in Dale v. Haeberlin, 878 F.2d 930, 934 (6th Cir., 1989), the controlling question is “whether the due process prohibition of judicially created ex post facto-type re-interpretations of the law also extends to judicial actions that affect the anticipated punishment for admittedly criminal conduct.” The Sixth Circuit, while deciding the question in the affirmative, noted that the United States Supreme Court had not answered this question, and it does not appear that the High Court has since answered this question. Consequently, and technically speaking, we are not bound by the Sixth Circuit’s holding and could depart from it and find that the imposition of multiple sentences in the present case did not violate due process concerns.
¶ 3 However, from an analytical perspective, the Dale court’s holding seems to be a sound and faithful extension of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 347, 84 S.Ct. 1697, 12 L.Ed.2d 894 (1964) and Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 97 S.Ct. 990 (1977). Thus, the more analytically sound approach is to follow the above precedent and allow the result reached here. My only hesitation comes from the fact that a case like the present one simply does not implicate the underlying concerns that the *415ex post facto doctrine was meant to address; thus the necessity for the doctrine is clearly debatable in this context.
¶ 4 As the majority indicates, the ex post facto prohibition operates to prevent retroactive criminalization of previously legal conduct as well as retroactive increases in punishment. That is, although free to pass law making certain conduct unlawful, the government is unable to prosecute, under the new law, conduct that was legal when it took place. Similarly, while free to increase the penalty for criminal conduct, the government cannot impose the greater penalty to criminal conduct that had taken place prior to the change. Since Appellant’s conduct was unlawful when it occurred, the first concern is not implicated here; however, the second concern is.
¶ 5 Historical commentary, as well as decisional rationale, indicates that the primary concern behind the retroactive increasing of a criminal penalty is essentially the same as retroactive criminalization of conduct — the prevention of unfair persecution and adherence to fundamental concepts of fairness, i.e., notice. Like the retroactive criminalization of previously legal conduct, the substantial increase of criminal penalty for admittedly criminal conduct implicated similar possibilities of abuse. The concern in the retroactive criminalization of previously legal conduct is that a governing body/legislature, perhaps in response to public outcry, concern or dislike, might take vindictive and severe action against certain conduct, and possibly, in the process, target a certain group of individuals.13 The same result could be achieved if the penalty for the conduct were substantially increased and applied retroactively.
¶ 6 While the above concern is valid, the more basic notion underlying the ex post facto prohibition is fundamental fairness, which is directly tied to notice. A fundamental sense of fairness commands that people should not be punished for conduct that was not proscribed when committed, and which they could not have known might soon be proscribed. This fundamental notice concept serves two separate underlying interests — the opportunity or right of an individual to choose to conform one’s conduct to the legal code of society and, perhaps conversely, the opportunity (or right?) to weigh whether to risk transgression of society’s law at a known cost.14 Few would have difficulty with the first interest. People should be alerted to conduct that is unlawful so that they can behave accordingly and avert any unpleasant consequences. However, the second interest is not without certain controversy.
¶ 7 On the one hand, fundamental fairness would seemingly be violated if a person, consciously choosing to transgress society’s law, were subjected to substantially greater punishment than was previously understood to be the consequence of the transgression.15 However, defending a citizen’s right to, in effect, conduct a cost-benefit analysis on the decision to violate the law is not an easy task. It is difficult to argue that, in a manner of speaking, an individual has a right to break the law if one is willing to pay the legislated cost, particularly when another is directly victimized by the act.16 Nevertheless, fair *416notice of the consequences clearly could have import in the reflective decision to violate the law. Undoubtedly, if the penalty for speeding were suddenly changed to one month’s jail time, many motorists who now freely flaunt the speed limit would stop doing so in response to the change in penalty. Thus, it can be argued that the notice aspect is fundamental to deterrence of criminal conduct. Notice of jail time for speeding will change that cost/benefit analysis and deter unlawful conduct, however, retroactive application cannot deter what has already transpired. Thus, notice still has a societal value in this context, even if there is an element of amorality in allowing people to make a conscious decision to violate the law at a specified cost.
¶ 8 Regardless of whether one believes in all of the interests underlying the ex post facto doctrine, it would seem relatively clear that affirming the judgment of multiple sentences in the present case would not truly violate them. First, appellant’s conduct was unlawful both prior to and after it occurred. Thus, this is not a case where Appellant would be punished for conduct that was lawful when it took place. Second, the statutorily prescribed penalty for the conduct was consistent throughout the relevant time. Thus, the theoretical penalty for Appellant’s conduct has not been changed in some form of vindictive overreaction of the legislature. Third, the crime(s) in question does not relate to conscious violation of the law, and, fourth, it is highly dubious to assert that Appellant was aware of the decisional law that suggested that he could only be punished once for the criminal act in question, regardless of the number of victims.17 Thus, Appellant’s expectation interest has not been transgressed and it cannot be said that, had he known that he could be subjected to more than one sentence, he would have abstained from the criminal conduct in question. Lastly, the decision in question merely corrects what apparently was a faulty prior holding. Thus, prohibiting the application of the new holding merely allows Appellant, and others like him, to benefit from erroneous law.
¶ 9 In short, it does not appear that any of the interests sought to be protected by the ex post facto clause are transgressed when a court of law “corrects” a conceptual error of law and then allows the “correct” legal concept to apply to cases still in litigation. Thus, clearly the utility of applying ex post facto concepts to the present situation must be questioned. Nevertheless, as I indicated above, from a standpoint of logical application of legal principle, the decision would appear unassailable. Thus, I reluctantly join the decision of the majority.

. See Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981), and Retroac-tivity of law: Should Bouie be buoyed?: Judicial Retroactive Lawmaking and the Ex Post Facto Clause, Krent, Harold J., 3 Rogers Williams U.L.Rev. 35.

. Id., at p. 12-13.

. Indeed, a trip down the highway readily reveals that numerous motorists exceed the posted speed limit. It can be safely assumed that most are doing so with full consciousness of the fact that they are violating the speed limit and may be stopped and fined for their conduct. Fundamental concepts of fairness would not seemingly allow them to be surprised with the knowledge that, rather than the fine specified in the appropriate legislation, they now face a one-year jail sentence.

.This equation might be very defendable in the context of certain violations that do not appear to victimize anyone. For instance, protestors might have been charged with disorderly conduct, defiant trespass or similar *416minor offenses in expressing their beliefs. In a society that values free speech, it might be considered defensible to commit such a transgression in defense of a cause. The protestors might understand that they could be arrested and might weigh that risk against the cause they are pursuing. Indeed, such actions played an integral part in the civil rights movement and are also common in today’s anti-abortion demonstrations. Despite the civil disobedience of this conduct, society, in general, might not find such action that offensive. However, when the violation involves directly injuring another, it would seem dubious that society would seek to protect that interest.

. No one is asserting that Appellant crashed the vehicle consciously after consideration of the fact that he could only be given one sentence regardless of how many people he injured or killed in the process.