Court Opinion

ID: 9752381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:03:17.92316+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:15.704611
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. The Commonwealth impermissibly used at trial before a jury appellant’s assertion of constitutional rights at the time of his arrest to create an inference of *291appellant’s guilt. I would reverse the judgment of sentence and remand for a new trial.
During cross-examination of the arresting officer, appellant’s counsel established that appellant never stated to any policeman that he was at the scene of the crime. The officer stated that appellant exercised his fifth amendment right to remain silent. On redirect, the Commonwealth elicited substantially the same response. Appellant did not object, nor could this initial answer be construed to be prejudicial since it was substantially the same testimony received on cross-examination.
The Commonwealth, however, over objection, continued to question the officer concerning appellant’s exercise of constitutional rights. In response, the officer read all of the Miranda warnings; indicated appellant’s response to each warning; testified for the first time that appellant exercised his right to an attorney; and reiterated appellant’s assertion of his right to remain silent. The majority admits that the trial court erred by allowing these questions and responses. It attempts to excuse this obviously impermissible line of questions by asserting: “[I]t was merely a repetition of that which the jury had previously been advised.” To the contrary, this testimony concerning Miranda warnings dramatized appellant’s refusal to make a statement to police and allowed the jury to infer guilt from a legally neutral assertion of constitutional rights.* I find no basis for the majority’s conclusion that these additional in-depth questions on redirect examination were “[no] more offensive than the earlier ones.”
*292In Commonwealth v. Haideman, 449 Pa. 367, 370-71, 296 A.2d 765, 766, 767 (1972), this Court held:
“Testimonial reference to an accused’s silence and his request for a lawyer at time of arrest is a constitutionally impermissible violation of the accused’s Fifth Amendment right. ... As the Fifth Circuit observed, ‘[w]e would be naive if we failed to recognize that most laymen view an assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege as a badge of guilt.’ Walker v. United States, 404 F.2d 900, 903 (5th Cir. 1968).”
See Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965).
In Commonwealth v. Stafford, 450 Pa. 252, 263, 299 A.2d 590, 596, cert. denied, 412 U.S. 943, 93 S.Ct. 2775, 37 L.Ed.2d 404 (1973), this Court made clear that the Haideman rule is applicable whether or not appellant himself elicits testimony concerning the exercise of his right to remain silent:
“That the appellant himself brought his silence, at the time of his arrest, to the jury’s attention does not justify the prosecutor’s grasping the opportunity to suggest that the appellant’s guilt be inferrred from his silence at that time.”
Haideman and Stafford control this case and require a reversal of appellant’s conviction.

 The majority, ignoring the prejudicial effect of the Commonwealth’s questions, states that the Commonwealth was merely refuting appellant’s implication that silence connotes lack of guilt. If this were the Commonwealth’s only intention, it should have requested an instruction that no inference may be drawn from appellant’s silence. There is no justification for the Commonwealth’s questions on redirect examination concerning Miranda warnings, which went beyond the initial inquiry on cross-examination, which were admittedly irrelevant, and which were highly prejudicial.