Court Opinion

ID: 9700515
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:33:28.768643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:10.134036
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION
BY BENDER, J.:
¶ 1 The initial issue before the Court is whether Appellant’s assertion of a vindictive sentence is waived for failure to include it in a Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) statement. The Majority concludes that Appellant’s assertion of a vindictive sentence falls within the classification of a challenge to the “discretionary aspect of sentencing” and therefore the issue is not appealable as of right but, instead, it was incumbent upon Appellant to petition this Court for allowance of appeal through the methodology set forth in Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f). I disagree with this premise.
¶ 2 Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) reads:
(f) Discretionary aspects of sentence. An appellant who challenges the discretionary aspects of a sentence in a criminal matter shall set forth in his brief a concise statement of the reasons relied upon for allowance of appeal with respect to the discretionary aspects of a sentence. The statement shall immediately precede the argument on the merits with respect to the discretionary aspects of sentence.
By its terms, Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) requires an appellant to include in his 2119(f) statement only reasons relied upon with respect to challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentencing. Discretion is defined as “freedom of action or judgment.”20 Considering only its terminology, and the definition of discretion, a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing implies that the error alleged is something within the realm of the discretion or judgment entrusted to the court. The weight to be given to prior convictions and the length of sentence necessary to protect the public are examples of the matters entrusted to the court’s discretion in imposing sentence, and an allegation of error in carrying out this function certainly can be properly characterized as a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing. Conversely, if a claim of error is built upon the court’s failure to act in a manner it is obligated to act, or is built upon the infringement of a guaranteed right, or simply asserts “plain error,” how can it be asserted that this is a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing? Is the court granted discretion to follow the rule as it sees fit? If not, there is nothing discretionary about the act or omission challenged.
¶ 3 Extending the Majority’s holding to its logical implication, we can now conclude that since a claim of a vindictive sentence constitutes a challenge to the discretionary aspect of sentencing, the sentencing court is extended discretion to impose a vindictive sentence as it sees fit. From this position, since it has been held that a vindictive sentence violates due process guarantees, it is a simple logical leap to conclude that as it regards sentencing, the court has general discretion to follow or violate the constitution, again, as it sees fit. Of course, this is patently ridiculous. There is no circumstance that I am aware of where the court is allowed or authorized to abridge a defendant’s constitutional rights by sentencing in a vindictive manner. As such, the claim that the sentencing court has done just that is not a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing, it is a “legal” challenge to the sentence imposed, even if that sentence *34were within the parameters set by statute and, therefore, facially valid.
¶ 4 In concluding that Appellant’s challenge of a vindictive sentence is waived for failure to include it in his Rule 2119(f) statement, the Majority follows an expedient logical progression. The Majority first implies that a challenge to a sentence is either a challenge to the legality of the sentence or a challenge to a discretionary aspect of the sentence. Majority Op. at 19-21. The Majority then contends that a challenge to a sentence constitutes a challenge to the legality of the sentence only when it claims that the sentence falls beyond the legal parameters prescribed by statute, violates principles of merger/double jeopardy or raises an Apprendi21 challenge. Majority Op. at 21. The Majority then seemingly relegates any but the few enumerated challenges of an illegal sentence to the category of “challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentencing.” Thus, according to the Majority, it would seem, since Appellant’s challenge does not fit within one of the three enumerated areas we have come to define as challenges to the legality of the sentence, then it must necessarily fall within the catchall category of challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentencing.
¶ 5 While it may not be the Majority’s fault, the error in the line of cases involving this issue is the attempt to shoehorn challenges that deal with the imposition of a sentence as either challenging the legality of the sentence or challenging the discretionary aspects of sentencing. This approach is ostensibly born from 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781, entitled “Appellate review of sentence,” which seemingly acknowledges only two classes of challenges to a sentence, those challenging the legality of the sentence and those challenging the discretionary aspects of sentencing. However, by acknowledging only two classes of challenges to a sentence, or matters involving sentencing, the statute seemingly overlooks claims which, quite possibly, are neither claims of discretionary error, nor of illegality of sentence but, rather, are simply claims of legal error that occurred during the sentencing process. Moreover, by limiting the challenges to a sentence as the statute does, the Majority here, and prior panels of this Court, have been forced to define challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentencing more broadly than the term itself connotes or rationally compels, leading to results that are completely non-sensical.
¶ 6 Already, this Court has, in defiance of common connotation, classified a denial of a right to allocution as a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing. Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 900 A.2d 368 (Pa.Super.2006). We formulated this holding despite the fact that we acknowledged that the court is mandated to provide, a right to allocution. Query: if the court has no discretion in allowing allocution, how can the denial of that right be regarded as a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing?
¶ 7 A similarly puzzling holding apprises us that the miscalculation of an offense gravity score constitutes a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing. Commonwealth v. Archer, 722 A.2d 203 (Pa.Super.1998). With respect to this exercise of defying the plain meaning of words, we at least acknowledged the inconsistency between reality and the terminology we have come to apply in these cases, although we did so, somewhat belatedly, in a subsequent opinion. In a moment of candor tucked neatly within the Jacobs decision, we made the following observation about Archer:
*35The Court came to this conclusion even though trial courts do not, of course, have the “discretion” to make patent and obvious mathematical errors that work to the detriment of criminal defendants.
Jacobs, 900 A.2d at 374. However, rather than address the inconsistency and irrationality of this terminology and approach, the en banc panel continued the pretense, most likely because the Court, at that point in its analysis, was preoccupied with the waiveability of the issue. Because the panel believed these types of challenges were capable of being waived, they could not term them challenges to the legality of the sentence, which cannot be waived. Thus, faced with only two apparent choices, they shoehorned the challenge into the discretionary aspects of sentencing category.
¶ 8 I would agree with the premise that many legal challenges, or allegations of court error that involve sentencing, are capable of being waived. Nevertheless, this does not render these challenges discretionary aspects of sentencing. If the error alleged does not involve a matter in which the court has discretion, plainly and rationally speaking, it is not a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing. Why then should it be regarded so in legal parlance? Whether or not it was necessary to properly preserve the challenge in the manner one would preserve any other challenge for appellate review is an entirely separate issue, and the two should remain distinct inquiries. The illogic in decisions like Archer, Jacobs and the present case is the forced restriction of two categories that do not rationally cover the full range of possible challenges.
¶ 9 Rather than continue these holdings and render our decisions academically suspect, the time is ripe to acknowledge a third class of challenges that are based upon the imposition of sentence, legal errors. Unlike challenges to the legality of sentence, legal errors address mistakes that are not a matter of the court’s exercise of discretion. However, because such challenges do not affect the court’s authority to impose the sentence in question, they are not claims of illegality of sentence and, as such, are capable of being waived and must be preserved for appellate review in the same manner other claims of error are preserved. However, as they also are not challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentence, there should be no need to include them in an appellant’s Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) statement, nor should an appellant need to petition this Court for allowance of appeal in order to have such errors addressed.
¶ 10 Since this is a Court en banc, any errors of analysis made previously can and should be corrected now. It is a better course of action than perpetuating them needlessly. Acknowledging that claims of error in imposing sentence can be claims that are neither challenges to the discretionary aspects of sentencing nor challenges to the legality of sentencing would simply conform the law to reality and common sense while preventing the Court from issuing patently inconsistent or irrational opinions such as those found in Archer and Jacobs.22
*36¶ 11 Although the above discussion should demonstrate that there is no rational way the current claim can be thought of as a challenge to the discretionary aspect of sentencing, this does not answer the question of whether the current claim is merely a claim of legal error, which can be waived, or a challenge to the legality of the sentence, which cannot be waived. If the present challenge is viewed as merely raising a legal error, it would be necessary for Appellant to have raised the issue below,23 (although there would still be no obligation under Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f) to include it in concise statement of reasons). However, as the Majority correctly notes, if the challenge is to the sentence’s legality, then, not only would Appellant not be required to include it in a 2119(f) statement, it cannot be waived.
¶ 12 The answer to the above question is found in the prior conclusion that Appren-di challenges are challenges to the legality of a sentence, as there is no meaningful distinction between an Apprendi challenge and the present challenge. In Apprendi challenges, the sentence in question is authorized by statute, thus the sentence has “legal” authority.24 Indeed, in virtually all cases involving the application of Appren-di, Blakely,25 and their progeny, it is acknowledged that the state has the constitutional authority to impose the sentence in question, as long as the defendant’s rights to trial by jury or due process are not violated in the process. Ultimately, it is the imposition of the sentence in question upon a court’s finding of fact, as opposed to a jury’s finding of fact, that deprives the criminal defendant of his constitutional right to a trial by jury, or, if a preponderance of the evidence standard is also used, violates due process by lessening the burden of proof upon the state. Thus, it is the manner in which the sentence is imposed that deprives constitutional rights.
¶ 13 Similarly, a vindictive sentence is considered a violation of a defendant’s constitutional right to due process. Here, as in Apprendi cases, the punishment imposed is statutorily authorized, but the manner of the imposition implicates a constitutional deprivation and, thus, subjects the sentence to a constitutional challenge. Clearly, if a sentence imposed in violation of Apprendi renders the sentence “illegal,” and thus renders an Apprendi challenge a non-waiveable challenge to the legality of sentence, the same must be said of a vindictive sentence and a claim that a sentence was unconstitutionally vindictive. It may be a difficult burden to prove that a sentence is vindictive. However, if it is proven, the sentence violates due process and is therefore unconstitutional. Thus, the challenge itself is the same as in Ap-prendi, and, since we have already found *37an Apprendi challenge constitutes a challenge to the legality of a sentence, we should treat the present challenge accordingly.
¶ 14 For the above reasons, I disagree that it was necessary to include the challenge leveled here within Appellant’s PA. R.A.P. 2119(f) statement. As for the underlying merits of the issue, I join the well argued position of my Dissenting Colleague, The Honorable Richard B. Klein.

. The American Heritage Dictionary 247 (4th ed.2001).

. Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).

. For those that believe that 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781 would prohibit us from taking this action, the answer lies in drawing a distinction between a challenge to a sentence and a challenge of trial court error that occurred during sentencing. Much like a petition to strike a judgment in civil court, which attacks the judgment upon its face, a challenge to the legality of the sentence attacks the sentence on its face for a lack of authority. Similarly, although not attacking its legal authority, a challenge to the discretionary aspects of sentencing examines the soundness of the sentence in light of any number of factors. Con*36versely, a claim of error occurring during the sentencing process does not attack the actual validity of the sentence. That the ultimate relief for the commission of such an error might be the vacation of the judgment of sentence is of no moment, as that is the standard relief we grant for the commission of any judicial error, regardless of whether or not the sentence was valid or invalid. In this context, an allegation of error that occurred during sentencing is no different than, say, an assertion that evidence was improperly introduced.

. I would note that Appellant did raise the issue of vindictiveness in a motion to reconsider sentence filed after imposition of sentence on October 27, 2004. Thus, even if viewed as a waivable claim of legal error, this act should be viewed as sufficient to properly preserve the matter for appellate review.

. This is notable as up until now virtually all illegal sentences have been defined by the lacking of statutory authority to impose the sentence imposed.

. Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004).