Court Opinion

ID: 9770072
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:37:29.780385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:12.686357
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CASTILLE,
concurring.
The Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court (“OAJC”) affords appellee the retroactive benefit of this Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Dickson, 591 Pa. 364, 918 A.2d 95 (2007) (holding that mandatory minimum sentence required by 42 Pa.C.S. § 9712(a) for persons who visibly possess firearm while committing certain crimes does not apply to unarmed co-conspirators), notwithstanding that appellee failed to preserve an objection on Dickson grounds to the imposition of his mandatory minimum sentence. I concur only in the result.
I.
As the lead Justices observe, this Court’s decision in Dickson issued four months after appellee Oliver Foster was sentenced. OAJC Op. at 335. Yet, in its legal analysis, the Lead Opinion does not address the important fact that the *526issue here requires an appreciation of, and accounting for, principles of retroactivity — which makes this case different from every other case in the plurality’s survey. Instead, the plurality apparently deems the sentence here to have been “illegal” when imposed so that it can squeeze the case into a sentencing review paradigm that it discerns in existing decisions. Standing alone, that appellee’s sentence is retroactively labeled illegal is a relatively benign fiction. The difficulty here is that, to make the case fit within its paradigm, the lead Justices adopt an overly broad rule redefining the concept of “illegal sentence.”
Under the plurality’s redefinition, if a sentencing claim involves a non-discretionary decision by the trial court, then it can be argued that the claim (a) implicates the “legality” of the sentence; and (b) is impervious to both trial level issue preservation requirements and appellate briefing requirements governing discretionary sentencing claims.1 Simply stated, the plurality now equates illegality with non-discretion in sentencing. The Lead Opinion’s new rule is unnecessary to resolve a case posing a distinct, and unique, retroactivity issue, but, worse, its mischief may be more global. Its pronouncement is a departure from precedent whose unavoidable result will be to multiply the number of potential claims that will be deemed “illegal,” irrespective of the plurality’s claim that our jurisprudence regarding sentence illegality remains narrow. OAJC Op. at 344. Further, the plurality’s redefinition will effect a radical rewriting of sentencing review practice, which will eviscerate trial level issue preservation requirements for both the Commonwealth and the defense. I respectfully believe that the unnecessary rule announced by the Lead Opinion is fundamentally in error and calls for a broader *527reexamination of the proper approach to claims alleging that a sentence is “illegal.” The different approach I outline below ultimately leads me to support affirmance, but on very different grounds.
I.A.
The issue in this case is the inevitable byproduct of this Court’s decision in Dickson, which overturned twenty years of Superior Court precedent involving the mandatory minimum sentencing provision in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9712(a) (requiring courts to impose five-year minimum sentence for person convicted, inter alia, of robbery “if a person visibly possessed a firearm”), and held that unarmed co-conspirators are not subject to Section 9712(a)’s five-year mandatory sentence. Appellee here was just such an unarmed co-conspirator; he was sentenced to the mandatory minimum sentence; he did not object at trial, no doubt in reliance on governing Superior Court case law; and, by the time Dickson was decided, his case was already on appeal. The mandatory minimum sentence, when it was imposed on appellee by the trial court, four months before we issued Dickson, was non-discretionary, and it unquestionably was “legal.”2 Proper resolution of this appeal requires identification and balancing of values. The Court must consider the appropriate retroactive reach of this Court’s decision in Dickson; how best to resolve the tension between retroactive application of that decision and this Court’s trial level issue preservation doctrines; and a proper understanding of the role of 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781.
The Superior Court adopted a categorical approach derived from Section 9781,3 under which a sentencing claim either *528implicates the sentencing court’s discretion, in which case the claim is subject to trial level issue preservation requirements and appellate level issue presentation requirements; or it implicates a sentence’s “legality,” which renders it impervious to any procedural restrictions, including waiver. Commonwealth v. Foster, 960 A.2d 160, 163-64 (Pa.Super.2008). According to the Superior Court, appellee’s Dickson claim was a challenge to the application of a mandatory minimum sentence and, as a result, related to the legality of his sentence and was unwaivable. Id. at 167-69. On appeal, the plurality does not admit its own reliance on Section 9781, but it implicitly adopts the Superior Court’s approach and perpetuates the discretion/legality dichotomy. In its analysis, the Lead Opinion betrays no recognition of the distinction between what is required by this Court’s authority governing issue preservation at trial, and Section 9781’s distinct requirements respecting presentation of sentencing issues on appeal. Then, the plurality redefines sentence illegality as non-discretion in sentencing. The Lead Opinion concludes that, because sentencing courts have no discretion to sentence below the mandatory minimum threshold when Section 9712(a) applies, ipso facto, a claim under that Section implicates the legality of the sentence, and cannot be waived. OAJC Op. at 344-45. In response to this concurrence, the plurality cites several cases which have assumed that, if a claim involves an “illegal” sentence, it was not subject to procedural restrictions at the trial level or on appeal. See OAJC Op. at 343-44. But, those cases state that claims of illegality were unwaivable; the same cases did not purport to redefine what amounts to an illegal sentence, let alone expand illegality to encompass all non-discretionary sentencing decisions, as the Lead Opinion does. *529Those cases also did not involve predicate questions of retro-activity, which increases the complexity of the present matter. As I noted at the outset, the plurality’s failure to account for the fact that the powering issue here is retroactivity, and its consequent redefinition of the concept of illegal sentence to reach its result, calls for a more principled examination of the precepts the plurality accepts as inflexible command. Other considerations supporting a closer examination of the paradigm include the difficulty that this Court and the Superior Court have had, in prior cases, in determining which claims implicate sentencing “legality,” and the fact that there are expressions in cases, not accounted for by the plurality, which have noted that there is a need for more precision in determining both what is an illegal sentence, and what procedural consequences should follow from a finding that a sentence is illegal.
Adopting an approach based on the so-called Section 9781 “dichotomy,” Foster, 960 A.2d at 168, to resolve this appeal is problematic for two reasons. First, the statute, notably entitled “appellate review of sentence,” does not purport to address trial level issue preservation doctrines, and the statute certainly does not purport to address retroactivity concerns arising from new decisional law. The statute exists merely to regulate the manner in which sentencing issues are approached on direct appeal. Section 9781(a) permits review “as of right” (for the defendant or the Commonwealth) if the question posed implicates “the legality of the sentence,” a phrase not further defined. Section 9781(b) governs appeals (by the defendant or the Commonwealth) of the “discretionary aspects of a sentence,” also not further defined, and sets forth a procedure by which such claims are screened by the direct review court in a manner similar to allocatur review. Review of discretionary aspects of sentence is allowed only where there is a substantial question that the sentence imposed is not appropriate under the Sentencing Code. Under this Court’s Rules, the screening process is invoked by including in the appellate brief the preliminary statement required by Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f). Failure to comply with this sui generis *530pleading process on appeal results in waiver, even if the discretionary claim was preserved below. See Commonwealth v. Tuladziecki, 513 Pa. 508, 522 A.2d 17 (1987). It is not apparent why deeming a claim to implicate sentencing “legality” for purposes of briefing to the direct review court under Section 9781 should automatically displace salutary and distinct judicial doctrines, which require that sentencing claims, like claims generally, should be forwarded and preserved at the trial court level.
Second, the categorical “illegal versus discretionary” formulation of the appellate review statute does not account for the complexity of issues that arise in the direct review sentencing realm. Under prevailing law, there are at least three common types of sentencing complaints, two of which can easily be squared with Section 9781’s illegal sentence/discretionary sentence labeling, and one of which cannot be labeled as easily. The classic claim of an illegal sentence is where the sentence exceeded the statutory maximum for the offense(s). See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Bradley, 575 Pa. 141, 834 A.2d 1127, 1131 (2003) (“An illegal sentence is one that exceeds the statutory limits.”). A court is simply unauthorized to impose such a sentence. Another example of a clearly illegal sentence is one imposed by a court lacking jurisdiction. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Quinlan, 433 Pa.Super. 111, 639 A.2d 1235 (1994) (court lacked jurisdiction in 1990 to order probation retroactive to May 1988, purportedly to correct “clerical error” in appellant’s original sentencing and parole orders, which were recorded and unchallenged); Commonwealth v. Thomas, 291 Pa.Super. 263, 435 A.2d 901, 903-05 (1981) (sentencing court lacked authority to revoke probation imposed under repealed act and imprison defendant, following his acquittal by reason of insanity).
The classic claim deemed to implicate discretionary sentencing is that the sentence imposed, though within the overall statutory maximum and though imposed by a court cognizant of the Sentencing Guidelines, is clearly unreasonable. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Davis, 737 A.2d 792 (Pa.Super.1999); Commonwealth v. Goodson, 365 Pa.Super. 24, 528 A.2d 997 *531(1987). Other common discretionary sentencing claims involve complaints that a sentence was insufficiently explained, or that the court considered impermissible factors, or that the court ignored relevant sentencing factors. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Yuhasz, 592 Pa. 120, 923 A.2d 1111 (2007); Commonwealth v. Moury, 992 A.2d 162 (Pa.Super.2010); Commonwealth v. Rhodes, 990 A.2d 732 (Pa.Super.2009).
But, as any experienced appellate criminal law practitioner knows, there are a multitude of claims that do not fall neatly into either of these statutory extremes. For example, by statute, a sentencing court is obliged to consult, but is not obliged to follow, the Sentencing Guidelines, so long as it explains its reasons for deviation from the Guidelines. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9721(b). See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Sessoms, 516 Pa. 365, 532 A.2d 775, 780-81 (1987). The court has no discretion to ignore the Guidelines; it has no discretion to fail to calculate the Guidelines accurately; and it has no discretion to fail to explain deviations. But, these non-discretionary lapses have never been deemed to make the resulting sentence “illegal.” See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Cook, 941 A.2d 7, 11 (Pa.Super.2007) (claim that sentencing court misapplied Sentencing Guidelines raises substantial question, thus allowing for review of claim under discretionary review provision of Section 9781(b)).
The Lead Opinion assumes that the two Section 9781 categories — discretionary and illegal — are sufficient to encompass all claims in the sentencing realm. In my view, however, the resulting artificial burden on the courts, and in particular on the Superior Court, to devise strained interpretations in order to fit a third category of claims into either the discretionary or legality paradigm points out the need for a more nuanced approach.
I.B.
By failing to recognize this complexity, in reaching the present result, the Lead Opinion has significantly redefined the concept of “illegal” sentence to include all but purely *532discretionary sentencing claims. In the wake of the plurality’s redefinition, many of the cases traditionally deemed to implicate “discretion” for purposes of Section 9781 may now be construed to implicate sentencing legality, since a court lacks discretion to consider improper factors, to fail to consider relevant factors, to fail to consider the Guidelines, to fail to properly calculate Guideline ranges, etc. Make no mistake, the redefinition of illegal as non-discretionary disapproves over twenty years of extensive Superior Court precedent, which has treated all but a very narrow class of claims as implicating discretionary aspects of sentencing, rather than sentencing “legality.” Considered Superior Court case law clearly does not equate all grievances regarding non-discretionary aspects of sentencing as “illegal” sentencing claims, even for the limited purpose of Section 9781. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Mola, 838 A.2d 791, 793 (Pa.Super.2003) (claim that sentencing court erroneously disregarded requirement to impose individualized sentencing was challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing); Commonwealth v. Adams, 760 A.2d 33, 39 (Pa.Super.2000) (claim that sentencing court erroneously applied mandatory drugs in school zone sentencing enhancement was challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing); Commonwealth v. Pennington, 751 A.2d 212, 215 (Pa.Super.2000) (claim that sentencing court erroneously applied mandatory deadly weapon enhancement was challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing); Commonwealth v. Batterson, 411 Pa.Super. 252, 601 A.2d 335, 336-37 (1992) (same); Commonwealth v. Cappellini, 456 Pa.Super. 498, 690 A.2d 1220, 1227-28 (1997) (claim that sentencing court failed to state on record reasons for sentence imposed, as required by statute, was challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing); Commonwealth v. Hlatky, 426 Pa.Super. 66, 626 A.2d 575, 583 (1993) (same); Commonwealth v. Munson, 419 Pa.Super. 238, 615 A.2d 343, 345 (1992) (claim that sentencing court failed to provide required on-record reasons for deviation from Sentencing Guidelines presented challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing); Commonwealth v. John, 408 Pa.Super. 234, 596 A.2d 834, 839-40 (1991) (Commonwealth challenged discretionary aspects of sentencing by claiming *533that sentencing court’s conclusion based on factors considered, ie., the sentence imposed, was inappropriate); Commonwealth v. Brown, 402 Pa.Super. 369, 587 A.2d 6, 7-8 (1991) (Commonwealth challenged discretionary aspects of sentencing by claiming that sentencing court failed to apply deadly weapon enhancement); Commonwealth v. Ennis, 394 Pa.Super. 1, 574 A.2d 1116, 1124 (1990) (claim that sentencing court erroneously factored defendant’s low I.Q. as sentence aggravator presented challenge to discretionary aspects of sentencing). Again, the plurality fails to appreciate the fact that the twin categories stated in Section 9781 do not account for all sentencing claims. The approach to this reality, to date, has been to reserve the designation “illegal” for a very narrow class of cases, and to treat all other claims as implicating discretion. The plurality has now reversed that approach.
In this regard, it is worth emphasizing that Section 9781’s simple briefing dichotomy applies to the Commonwealth no less than to the defendant. By both redefining the concept of sentencing legality, and then effectively importing Section 9781 into the trial level issue preservation realm and making it dispositive, the Lead Opinion creates a prospect that the Commonwealth will not need to preserve its own “non-discretionary” sentencing claims in the trial court — by notice to the defense where statutorily required, contemporaneous objection where required, and/or by post-sentence motion, as generally required. If the definition of “illegal” really is “non-discretionary,” as the plurality now holds, and if illegal sentences are not subject to trial level waivers, as the plurality also holds, the Lead Opinion has significantly recalibrated the post-trial and appellate landscape where sentencing claims are concerned.
The trial court’s determination of an appropriate sentence is inherently discretionary, and deference to the trial court’s on-the-spot assessment is crucial, which no doubt is why the General Assembly undertook to make review of discretionary sentencing decisions more difficult. In the trial court’s discretionary formulation, however, there are a myriad of non-discretionary responsibilities. Even if I could agree that all *534such non-discretionary obligations implicate the “legality” of a sentence for purposes of appellate issue presentation requirements under Section 9781 and Rule 2119(f), I would not simply assume, as the Lead Opinion does, that such claims should also be deemed to implicate sentencing “legality” for the very distinct question of whether to ignore trial level issue preservation requirements, requirements which apply to both the defense and the Commonwealth. Parties should be encouraged, and indeed required, to stand up and tell the trial court that it has miscalculated the Guidelines, or has improperly applied, or failed to apply, a mandatory sentencing statute. Such salutary judicial rules should stand down only if there is a sufficient, competing value at stake.
II.
For purposes of issue preservation at the trial level, it is obvious that there are concerns beyond the labeling of a sentencing claim as non-discretionary. A classic claim of sentencing “legality” is obvious, undeniable, and capable of even administration, so much so that the claim may be raised sua sponte. A court either has jurisdiction or it does not; a sentence either exceeds the statutory maximum or it does not. Review of a docket and the relevant governing statute establishes the claim. But, many other non-discretionary sentencing claims are not so obvious or indisputable. The claim here is an example. The applicability, or inapplicability, of the Section 9712(a) firearms mandatory sentence is not obvious from the conviction and a consultation of the statute; it depends, intensely, upon the facts. Those facts can be disputed at trial. Obviously, then, this is the sort of claim that the defendant (or the Commonwealth, as the case may be) should dispute, both timely and on the record. Retroactively labeling the claim as one implicating sentencing “legality” does not alone warrant passing upon a claim not forwarded below.
In prior cases, I have cautioned against simplistic and monolithic approaches to claims that a sentence is illegal, and thereby is not subject to procedural default, and this case presents a good example of why more precise weighing is *535required. See Commonwealth v. Roney, 581 Pa. 587, 866 A.2d 351, 363-65 (2005) (Castille, J., concurring); Commonwealth v. Aponte, 579 Pa. 246, 855 A.2d 800, 812-16 (2004) (Castille, J., concurring). I have previously cautioned against broad innovative constructions of the term “illegal sentence” and stood in favor of “reserv[ing] that sort of status to those few sentencing claims ... which challenge sentences exceeding the very jurisdiction or power of the sentencing court.” Aponte, 855 A.2d at 815. I also noted my concern that “[m]erely labeling a sentence as ‘illegal’ hardly justifies defeating all other laws which exist to ensure a rational and fair system of overview.” Id.; accord Roney, 866 A.2d at 363-65. Instead, I have suggested an approach that would weigh the nature and gravity of the substantive sentencing claim against the values served by the specific normative default principle (here, issue preservation) at issue. In that analysis, I would also pay particular heed to the fact that we have greater control over the application of judicial default doctrines (ie., waiver) than we have over statutory defaults (such as are found in the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541 et seq.). Id. In my respectful view, the plurality improperly poses the question here as whether appellee’s sentence is “illegal” as that term has come to be construed under Section 9781. It is more accurate and helpful to view the question as whether appellee, whose sentence unquestionably was legal under any formulation of sentencing “legality” when initially imposed, nevertheless is entitled to the retroactive benefit of the Dickson decision, even though he did not preserve a “Dickson challenge” to the then-prevailing interpretation of Section 9712(a).4 *536Resolution of this question requires balancing competing interests: on the one hand, the nature and importance of Dickson — a case offering this Court’s first and definitive construction of the reach of a statute that, in some instances, severely restricts judicial discretion in formulating a sentence — against a judicial procedural default rule — the requirement of issue preservation.
For my part, I would reach the substantive issue — entitlement to the retroactive application of Dickson — not because appellee’s sentence was “illegal,” but because the claim involves a sufficient value that, under the peculiar circumstances here, our judicial issue preservation doctrine may properly stand down. The default doctrine applicable here is a judicial construct, made via procedural rules and practices, to carry out the orderly functioning of the appellate process. See Pa.R.A.P. 302(a); Commonwealth v. Freeman, 573 Pa. 532, 827 A.2d 385, 393 (2003); Commonwealth v. Bracey, 568 Pa. 264, 795 A.2d 935, 956 (2001) (Castille, J., concurring). As the creator of this issue preservation/waiver doctrine, this Court is certainly empowered to modify or excuse it when greater jurisprudential values are at stake. Freeman, 827 A.2d at 402; Bracey, supra.
Dickson overruled two decades of Superior Court precedent on the proper interpretation of Section 9712(a). The practical and salutary purpose of contemporaneous objection requirements is to assure immediate correction (or avoidance) of error, and thereby to provide justice immediately, and to forestall appellate issues and minimize appeals in their entirety. And, appellee obviously could have preserved a challenge to the governing Superior Court authority under Section 9712(a) in the hope that this Court might finally review that precedent. But, such a protective objection would not have *537forestalled the appeal, as the trial court had no authority to impose a sentence less than the mandatory minimum under then-governing law. Application of our contemporaneous objection requirement does not have the same force here that it would have in instances where timely objection would have put an end to the issue.
On the other side of the equation is the importance of the decision that, appellee claims, should be applied retroactively for his benefit. In my mind, two aspects of Dickson weigh in favor of retroactive application here. First, is the fact that the decision — whether right or wrong (I was in dissent in Dickson) — was not a mere adjustment of a judicial rule, but instead was this Court’s first and definitive interpretation of the intended reach of Section 9712(a). Under our precedent, that statutory interpretation becomes a part of the statute from the very beginning, and therefore, the interpretation plainly may be afforded retroactive effect. See Commonwealth v. Williams, 594 Pa. 366, 936 A.2d 12, 22 (2007); Kendrick v. Disk Attorney of Philadelphia County, 591 Pa. 157, 916 A.2d 529, 537-41 (2007); Commonwealth v. Eller, 569 Pa. 622, 807.A.2d 838, 844 (2002).
Second, is the fact that the statutory provision at issue operated to deprive the judiciary of its traditional power of discretion in sentencing. For retroactivity purposes, Section 9712(a) obviously is not of the same ordér as a statute defining criminal conduct. Contrast Kendrick, 916 A.2d at 539 (“A person does not run afoul of Pennsylvania criminal law unless he violates a specific statute; and when this Court holds that a statute does not encompass certain conduct, we do not have a ‘choice’ in determining whether to give retroactive effect to our holding.”). But, neither is the statute purely procedural. And, at least in a case like this one, where the length of the minimum sentence imposed was wholly a function of the statute (the standard range of the Guidelines called for a minimum sentence of twenty-two to thirty-six months, and the court gave no indication that it believed an upward deviation would otherwise have been warranted), its effect is to prevent the court from fashioning an individualized sentence that *538otherwise complies with the norms set forth in the Sentencing Code and the Sentencing Guidelines. In short, for the admittedly narrower purpose of sentencing, the statute can have as fundamental an effect as a statute defining criminal conduct. For my part, I do not question the power of the General Assembly to remove sentencing discretion in firearm possession cases via mandatory minimum sentencing statutes like Section 9712(a). But, in assessing whether to employ a judicial procedural default doctrine to preclude retroactive application of a decision construing a sentencing statute, I believe that the fact that the decision recognizes and restores a discretionary power in sentencing weighs in favor of excusing the default.
A third factor weighing in favor of allowing the statute, as construed in Dickson, to operate retroactively despite waiver of appellee’s claim is that it does not disturb any legitimate reliance interest on the part of the Commonwealth. The effect of a mandatory sentencing statute in a case where there is no argument that a sentence greater than the mandatory is warranted is to make sentencing a rote exercise. Applying Dickson and remanding will not dictate that any particular sentence be imposed, but instead, will require discretionary, individualized resentencing by a judicial officer, according to default sentencing norms, just like in the vast majority of criminal cases. On the other hand, refusing to apply Dickson consigns appellee to serve a non-discretionary, mandatory sentence even though, under this Court’s prevailing interpretation in Dickson, the General Assembly did not intend to remove judicial discretion in this instance. On balance, I do not believe that our trial level default doctrine should be enforced.
Fourth and finally, I believe retroactive application of Dickson in the face of trial level default is appropriate because appellee’s case was not yet final, but was pending on direct appeal when Dickson was decided, and appellee promptly raised his claim soon after the decision. Obviously, other considerations and values, beyond the requirement of contem*539poraneous objection, obtain once direct review has ended and a sentence has become final.
III.
For these reasons, I concur only in the judgment, and I would affirm the decision of the Superior Court to vacate and remand for resentencing, albeit on different grounds.5
Justice ORIE MELVIN joins this opinion.

. Although the plurality has re-formulated its rule in terms of mandatory minimum sentence claims, the rule’s application will certainly extend beyond that arena, given that the General Assembly has removed trial court discretion on issues other than mandatory minimum sentences. Notably, I refer to issues related to the consideration and application of the Sentencing Guidelines, which have never been considered to implicate the legality of a sentence. See discussion infra. For this reason, I continue to discuss the global impact of the plurality’s new rule.

. In its recitation of the procedural history, the Lead Opinion acknowledges that the mandatory sentence was properly imposed “under the accepted reading of Section 9712(a) at the time of sentencing." OAJC Op. at 335. And yet, in its legal analysis, the plurality deems appellant's unpreserved "Dickson challenge” to be unwaivable because the sentence was "illegal.” The disconnect is an inevitable byproduct of the plurality’s failure to appreciate the fact that this is, in essence, a retroactivity case.

. Section 9781 (Appellate Review of Sentence) provides, in relevant part:
*528(a) Right to appeal. — -The defendant or the Commonwealth may appeal as of right the legality of the sentence.
(b) Allowance of appeal. — The defendant or the Commonwealth may file a petition for allowance of appeal of the discretionary aspects of a sentence for a felony or a misdemeanor to the appellate court that has initial jurisdiction for such appeals. Allowance of appeal may be granted at the discretion of the appellate court where it appears that there is a substantial question that the sentence imposed is not appropriate under this chapter.

. My discussion in text is confined to the question of issue preservation at the trial court level, and not the distinct question of compliance with Section 9781(b) and Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) on appeal. Given the obvious inadequacy of the illegal/discretionary construct in Section 9781, careful practitioners over the years have always included a prefatory Rule 2119(f) statement, even if they had a colorable argument that their claims implicated the legality of a sentence, or as here, that their claims did not implicate a discretionary sentencing determination. Appellee would have been wise to follow this practice. But, on the other hand, the question of whether his merits issue was reviewable as of right under Section 9781(a) was one of first impression; appellee did not hide the ball, but indeed, raised his Dickson argument immediately; the *536Superior Court denied his pre-briefing motion without prejudice to raise the claim on appeal; and the merits issue of retroactive application of Dickson obviously raised a substantial question of first impression, such that discretionary review would have been appropriate. On this record, and consistently with my discussion below, I would not deem appellee’s claim to be waived under the judicial default rule embodied in Appellate Rule 2119(f).

. The plurality demurs from addressing the issue of retroactivity, because it has not been argued by the parties and because, the Lead Opinion says, "the Commonwealth has conceded the applicability of Dickson ” to appellee if the issue of waiver were resolved in favor of appellee. OAJC Op. at 345 n. 21. Accordingly, the plurality addresses the issue of waiver only. The Lead Opinion also expresses concern with my "conclusion that 'as the creator of this issue preservation/waiver doctrine, this Court is certainly empowered to modify or excuse it whenever greater jurisprudential values are at stake.’ Concurring Op. at 536, 17 A.3d at 352 (Castille, C[.]J., concurring).” OAJC Op. at 346 n. 21. The plurality then claims there is a conflict in my position on the question of issue preservation. Id.
But the plurality’s condemnation of my position derives from its own misperception of my global position. This Court obviously may adjust its procedural rules respecting issue preservation. The plurality may have rendered a simple and definitive rule, as it says, but it is an ad hoc rule that, in my respectful judgment, fails to see the bigger picture, and will cause collateral confusion. As I have explained, this sentence was legal when imposed and appellee failed to challenge it. Dickson was then decided four months later, and appellee sought application of Dickson to reduce his sentence. Under these circumstances, both the doctrines of retroactivity and waiver are implicated. I am decidedly in favor of properly assessing issues and values, irrespective of the parties' arguments, rather than restricting our review. In this preference, I have solid company. See Freed v. Geisinger Med. Center, 5 A.3d 212, 215 (Pa.2010); id. at 218-19 (Castille, C.J., concurring). As always, the issue is not whether we may consider broader principles, but whether we should. We are not sitting here in mere error review, and I believe the broader principles I have discussed are fairly implicated.