Court Opinion

ID: 9711116
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:24:39.286067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:02.366121
License: Public Domain

*107NIX, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority has determined that in spite of the lower court error in denying appellant’s request for a continuance in order to allow him an opportunity to retain private counsel of his own choice, appellant is not entitled to relief. The majority found that appellant’s attempt to exercise his constitutional right to counsel of his choice was timely and was not a dilatory tactic. Thus it was concluded that appellant’s right to select counsel of his choice had indeed been violated. In view of this holding, I cannot accept the majority’s subsequent conclusion that the denial of appellant’s right to counsel was harmless error. Implicitly the majority reasons that because the counsel who actually represented appellant performed competently, the denial of appellant’s right to counsel of his choice could not have contributed to the verdict and, therefore, was harmless error. See Commonwealth v. Story, 476 Pa. 391, 409, 383 A.2d 155, 164 (1978). In my view, such reasoning rests upon a purely speculative comparison between actual counsel’s performance and the majority’s conjecture as to how an attorney chosen by appellant might have proceeded in handling appellant’s case. More importantly, such an application of the harmless error doctrine would render nugatory the right to counsel of one’s choice. I therefore dissent.