Court Opinion

ID: 9747738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:30:02.714234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:26.096832
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion is correct that the question of the retroactive application of the exclusionary rule an*407nounced in the McCutchen1 line of decisions has already been decided in Commonwealth v. Chaney, 465 Pa. 407, 350 A.2d 829 (1975). While I expressed disagreement with that decision, I did not reach the retroactivity issue since my dissenting opinion (which was joined by Mr. Chief Justice Jones and Mr. Justice Eagen) was directed to the wisdom of the Court’s fashioning a per se exclusionary rule with regard to juvenile confessions.2 I therefore take this opportunity to address the issue of that rule’s retroactive application.
Under this Court’s decisions, reversal is required whenever a juvenile waives the constitutional rights prescribed by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), without the opportunity of first consulting with a parent or other interested adult who himself has been advised of the juvenile’s constitutional rights. See McCutchen, supra, and cases cited therein. Inasmuch as the holding of McCutchen has its genesis in the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Miranda, supra, that Court’s decision with regard to Miranda’s retrospective application should be considered highly persuasive in resolving the instant retroactivity issue.
In Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966), the Court held that the Miranda decision was applicable only to cases in which trial commenced after the date of announcement of the decision. The Johnson Court reasoned as follows:
“Future defendants will benefit fully from our new standards governing in-custody interrogation, while past defendants may still avail themselves of the voluntariness test. Law enforcement officers and trial courts will have fair notice that statements taken in *408violation of these standards may not be used against an accused. Prospective application only to trials begun after the standards were announced is particularly appropriate here. Authorities attempting to protect the privilege have not been apprised heretofore of the specific safeguards which are now obligatory. Consequently they have adopted devices which, although below the constitutional minimum, were not intentional evasions of the requirements of the privilege. In these circumstances, to upset all of the convictions still pending on direct appeal which were obtained in trials preceding Escobedo and Miranda would impose an unjustifiable burden on the administration of justice.” Id. at 732-733, 86 S.Ct. at 1780-1781.
To my mind, that rationale is altogether sound and is equally applicable to the situation now before us. I would therefore hold that this Court’s prophylactic rule regarding juvenile confessions should be limited to cases whose trial commenced after the rule was announced. Hence this dissent.
JONES, C. J., and EAGEN, J., join in this dissenting opinion.

. Commonwealth v. McCutchen, 463 Pa. 90, 343 A.2d 669 (1975).

. See also the dissenting opinions of Mr. Justice Eagen (joined by Mr. Chief Justice Jones and this writer) in Commonwealth v. Roane, 459 Pa. 389, 329 A.2d 286 (1974), and Commonwealth v. Starkes, 461 Pa. 178, 335 A.2d 698 (1975).