Court Opinion

ID: 9644538
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:58:55.149432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:14.490610
License: Public Domain

EAGEN, Chief Justice,
concurring:
I join in the opinion of the Court. Under the circumstances presented, the granting of a new appeal to the petitioner under the Post Conviction Hearing Act, Act of January 25, 1966, P.L. (1965) 1580, § 1 et seq., 19 P.S. § 1180-1 et seq. (Supp.1978-79), by the Court of Common Pleas on the basis that appellate counsel was ineffective was proper. Unlike *188the circumstances present in Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 472 Pa. 129, 371 A.2d 468 (1977), where the alleged inadequacies of appellate counsel involved matters of which the appellate court necessarily had knowledge and which were subject to supervisory authority of that court, the failure of appellate counsel to raise the issue of trial counsel’s effectiveness is not a matter which would come to the attention of the appellate court. In the former instance, if the representation is inadequate, such is obviously apparent to the appellate court and via its supervisory authority a supplemental or new brief or oral argument can be sua sponte ordered. In the latter instance, the appellate court will not exercise its authority because it will not necessarily have knowledge of the inadequate presentation. Accordingly, I limit my approval of Commonwealth v. Sullivan, supra, to the circumstances here presented.