Court Opinion

ID: 9704986
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:53:44.946086+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:07.130679
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result only because the trial court, acting within its power, found that the prosecutor was not acting in bad faith, and I would not disturb that finding. However, because, in my view, this case presents an excellent *21example of the inadequacy of the federal standard of overreaching as defined in Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 72 L.Ed.2d 416 (1982), I cannot join that portion of the opinion authored by Mr. Justice Papadakos which would adopt as a matter of state constitutional protection the standard announced in Kennedy, supra.1 In my view, we would do better to adjudge cases as they arise and within our existing conceptual framework, than to blindly abandon state law to adopt the recent federal limitation on double jeopardy protection.
The protection against double jeopardy — that no one be harassed by successive prosecutions for a single wrongful act — is fundamental to the American system of criminal justice.
The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.
Commonwealth v. Starks, 490 Pa. 336, 340, 416 A.2d 498, 499 (1980), quoting Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223, 2 L.Ed.2d 199, 204 (1957). We have also recognized that to err is human and, in the course of criminal prosecutions, some prosecutorial error is inevitable. Thus, we have said that when prosecutorial error motivates a defendant to seek a second trial, the re-trial will not be barred by double jeopardy. However, when prosecutorial overreaching provokes the defendant’s request for a mistrial, or the request on appeal for a new trial, the constitutional protection against double jeopardy will bar the second trial.
*22The question then to be answered is: What constitutes overreaching? Until now, we defined overreaching as did the Oregon Court of Appeals in Oregon v. Kennedy, supra.: Bad faith conduct which threatened (1) the harassment of an accused by successive prosecutions or (2) declaration of a mistrial so as to afford the prosecution a more favorable opportunity to convict. The United States Supreme Court has apparently decided this standard was too difficult for trial and appellate courts to apply, and, for purposes of federal double jeopardy protection, has abandoned these standards in favor of a standard which requires courts to find that the prosecutor “intended to ‘goad’ the defendant into moving for a mistrial” before a second prosecution is barred. Oregon v. Kennedy, supra at 676, 102 S.Ct. at 2089, 72 L.Ed.2d at 425. In my view, the facts of the instant case are sufficient to show the inadequacy of the federal standard in protecting accused persons from prosecutorial misconduct; thus, I express my opposition to adoption of such a standard as a matter of Pennsylvania constitutional protection.
The instant controversy arises out of the Commonwealth’s failure to provide the fact finder with the details of a plea bargain concerning the only Commonwealth witness who was present at the time the crime was committed, and without whose testimony there would have been no case. The terms of the bargain involve more than what the majority characterizes as “the usual commitment by the Commonwealth that it would recommend a lighter sentence in return for [the witness’s] testimony.” In return for testimony in two cases, the Commonwealth promised a witness who was charged with murder and other crimes which, in the aggregate, could have brought a total of 55 years in prison, to recommend 11½ to 23 months in jail with credit for time already served, plus a term of probation. This is the sentence which was subsequently imposed. Despite the fact that the witness was fully apprised of the terms of the agreement, he testified at appellant’s trial that *23there was no agreement as to what sentence he would get and that he expected that he could go to prison for 55 years. The error was compounded when the prosecutor failed to clarify the terms of the agreement for the jury. The fact finder was entitled to know the precise terms of the agreement in order to assess whether the witness’s testimony was motivated by truth and remorse for his misdeeds or simply a desire to secure his own early release. Concerning as it does the alleged concealment of information which was necessary to the truth-determining process, the alleged misconduct, even if proved, could well never satisfy the new federal standard, as concealment will always negate any “intent to goad the defendant request a mistrial.” The intent of concealment, indeed its essence, is that the defendant would never know the facts and, thus, would not base any claim for relief on those facts.
Likewise, there may be other cases where the Commonwealth conceals its efforts to subvert the truth-determining process. Where, for example, the Commonwealth knowingly uses perjured testimony, there will of necessity be no intent to goad the defendant into moving for a mistrial. Quite the opposite, the intent would be that the defendant should never know how his wrongful conviction came about. Should the Commonwealth’s concealment of necessary information vitiate the double jeopardy protection afforded by our constitution? I think not. As Judge Del Sole opined below: “I find no functional difference between intentional misconduct, engaged in by the prosecution in order to avoid an acquittal by causing a mistrial and intentional misconduct, engaged in by the prosecution in concealing evidence, which results in a guilty verdict. In either case, the conduct of the prosecution once established, places the defendant twice in jeopardy for the same crime.” Commonwealth v. Simons, 342 Pa.Super. 281, 303, 492 A.2d 1119, 1131 (1985).
ZAPPALA, J., joins this concurring opinion.

. PA. CONST. Art. I, Section 10 provides: "No person shall, for the same offense, be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb....”