Court Opinion

ID: 9698026
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:39:53.248832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:37.748990
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Judge,
concurring:
I join Judge Brosky’s well reasoned memorandum admitting the evidence regarding appellee’s, Thomas C. Gordon’s, other crimes or wrongs under the common scheme, plan, or design exception to the rule which generally prohibits the admission of such evidence. The Commonwealth’s appeal is properly before this Court. Our Supreme Court has held that the Commonwealth may directly appeal adverse orders from motions in limine which exclude evidence when the Commonwealth certifies that the exclusion terminates or substantially handicaps its prosecution because such orders “are final in the same way as suppression orders.... ” Commonwealth v. Cohen, 529 Pa. 552, 559, 605 A.2d 1212, 1216 (1992). See *183Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 486 A.2d 382 (1985); Commonwealth v. Bosurgi, 411 Pa. 56, 190 A.2d 304 (1963). I write separately, however, to express my concern about the issues raised by Judge Cavanaugh in his enlightening dissent.
Currently, the Commonwealth possesses the potential to abuse the pre-trial motions process. I believe that Justice Cappy, in Commonwealth v. Cohen, supra 529 Pa. 552, 605 A.2d 1212, aptly explained the inherent problems in allowing the Commonwealth to directly appeal adverse orders from motions in limine. By concluding that the Commonwealth should not possess the absolute right to directly appeal adverse motion in limine rulings, Justice Cappy, in my opinion, correctly distinguished between orders which grant or deny motions in limine and those which suppress evidence. See Commonwealth v. Cohen, supra, 529 Pa. at 566-69, 605 A.2d at 1219-21 (Cappy, J., concurring). Thus, I respectfully request our Supreme Court to revisit this issue.