Court Opinion

ID: 9736225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:47:54.40837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:05.158091
License: Public Domain

HUTCHINSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. In Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 486 A.2d 382 (1985), a majority of this Court said the Commonwealth has a right to appeal a pre-trial order suppressing evidence where it believes, in good faith, that the exclusion of that evidence at trial will substantially handicap the prosecution. In this case the Commonwealth elected not to *536appeal the suppression of the particular evidence here involved. I must assume that election was made in the good faith belief that the exclusion of this evidence would not substantially handicap the prosecution. I would honor the Commonwealth’s judgment, accept its good faith and avoid an unnecessary hindsight inquiry into whether the mistrial resulted substantially from exclusion of the suppressed evidence. I would simply hold the Commonwealth was bound by its election not to appeal the pre-trial order pursuant to the right of appeal it has under Commonwealth v. Bosurgi, 411 Pa. 56, 190 A.2d 304 (1963), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 910, 84 S.Ct. 204, 11 L.Ed.2d 149 and Dugger, supra.