Court Opinion

ID: 9758076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:10:06.127147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:58:34.300103
License: Public Domain

*195WIEAND, Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. If the provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. §110 are applicable to the facts of this case, as the majority holds, then this Court cannot properly refuse to enforce the statute’s bar of a second trial. Where a statute has been duly enacted by the legislature, this Court should not apply it selectively. If exceptions to the statute are to be created, they must be created by the legislature. They should not be created on an ad hoc basis by a court when it finds the result of enforcement harsh or unwise under the peculiar circumstances present in a particular case. Although I share the majority’s concern for cautious application of a statute which permits a person accused of crime to evade prosecution on grounds unrelated to guilt or innocence, I am unwilling to pay the price of selective, non-uniform enforcement of the statutory law of this Commonwealth.
I would enforce the provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. § 110 and discharge the defendant.