Court Opinion

ID: 9697429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:16:17.498019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:32.333141
License: Public Domain

WATKINS, Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent and would affirm the Order of the court below. The public defender who was the defendant’s trial counsel represented the defendant eight years prior to the instant proceeding. That attorney voluntarily retired from the Public Defender’s Office six years prior to this proceeding and has not been remotely connected with that office since that time. Such a lengthy absence should eliminate any appearance of impropriety of a present member of the public defender’s office arguing ineffectiveness of counsel on appeal.
*364Perhaps each judicial district in Pennsylvania should have two separate public defender’s offices which are totally distinct from one another. Then an attorney from Public Defender’s Office I could represent indigent criminal defendants at trial and one from Public Defender’s Office II could represent indigent defendants on appeal when they allege ineffective assistance of the Public Defender’s Office I trial counsel. Of course, the cost of all this would be done at the taxpayer’s expense. I believe that the majority goes too far in protecting a defendant’s rights against a non-existent conflict. I would hold that no conflict of interest exists in the instant case.