Court Opinion

ID: 9703576
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:01:06.778789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:50.297606
License: Public Domain

*242LARSEN, Justice,
concurring.
While I join the majority opinion in this case, I write separately to state that this Court’s recent decisions in Commonwealth v. Jones, 530 Pa. 536, 610 A.2d 439 (1992) and Commonwealth v. Judge, 530 Pa. 403, 609 A.2d 785 (1992) subsume Commonwealth v. Passaro, 504 Pa. 611, 476 A.2d 346 (1984). Passaro held that a convicted defendant, who escaped after filing a notice of appeal, had his appeal quashed and was later returned to custody, forfeited his appellate rights by virtue of his escape. In Jones we expanded and broadened Passaro by unequivocally stating that “a defendant’s voluntary escape acts as a per se forfeiture of his right of appeal, where the defendant is a fugitive at any time after post-trial proceedings commence. Such a forfeiture is irrevocable and continues despite the defendant’s capture or voluntary return to custody” (emphasis added).