Court Opinion

ID: 9651178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:09:43.674688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:30.661026
License: Public Domain

CAVANAUGH, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the result reached by the majority because it affirms the conviction on a theory which may not have been before the jury. There is nothing in the record which shows that the court charged the jury that it could return a guilty verdict if it found that evidence other than the results of the blood alcohol test would be sufficient to establish that the appellant’s blood alcohol level was 0.10% or greater.
Appellant was originally charged with two drunk driving offenses: 1) driving while under the influence of alcohol to a degree which renders one incapable of safe driving, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(1) and (2) driving while the amount of alcohol by weight in the blood is 0.10% or greater, 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(4). At the preliminary hearing, the § 3731(a)(1) charge was dismissed and the § 3731(a)(4) charge was held for trial. Therefore, at trial it was the burden of the Commonwealth to prove the blood alcohol content of the appellant.
I do not believe it is possible to affirm appellant’s conviction where the record does not indicate whether the jury was properly charged on the legal theory upon which the majority *41affirms. Unless the trial court instructed the jury that it could conclude that the evidence, independent of the results of the blood alcohol test, could be sufficient to prove that appellant’s blood alcohol level exceeded 0.10%, I believe that the conviction should not be upheld.1 On this basis, I respectfully dissent and would vacate the judgment of sentence imposed for violation of 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(4).

. The majority (n. 3), it seems, misconstrues the import of this dissent. The proposition does not relate to the court's duty to "make specific reference to each piece of evidence” but rather to the doctrine that an appellate court may not affirm a conviction of a crime based on a theory of criminal responsibility that was not before the jury.