Court Opinion

ID: 9711621
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:35:25.908973+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:06.337103
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
concurring.
I join that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the Borough of West Chester may not appeal from a verdict of not guilty. In our system of jurisprudence there is no right of appeal from a not guilty verdict. Such a verdict is final and conclusive. See United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 91, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 2194, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978) (“[t]o permit a second trial after an acquittal, however mistaken the acquittal may have been, would present an unacceptably high risk that the Government, with its vastly superior resources, might wear down the defendant so that ‘even though innocent, he may be found guilty’ ”); Sanabria v. United States, 437 U.S. 54, 64, 98 S.Ct. 2170, 2179, 57 L.Ed.2d 43 (1978) (“when a defendant has been acquitted at trial he may not be retried on the same offense, even if the legal rulings underlying the acquittal were erroneous”). The Borough could not pursue an appeal, and no appellate court of this Commonwealth could have subject-matter jurisdiction. Thus the Borough’s “appeal” should have been quashed sua sponte by the Commonwealth Court. For this reason, whether appellant waived his claim of double jeopardy is not an issue, and the majority’s discussion of waiver is unnecessary.