Court Opinion

ID: 9698970
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:05:37.185478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:45.026204
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
The automatic application of Commonwealth v. Bolden, 472 Pa. 602, 373 A.2d 90 (1977) to delay the retrial of any defendant who has uttered the magic words “double jeopardy” has, until today, placed a stranglehold upon our criminal justice system. Accordingly, I am in total agreement with the majority’s release of that stranglehold in holding that, where the trial court has made a written determination that the defendant’s double jeopardy claim is frivolous, there will be no right to an automatic, interlocutory appeal.
However, I cannot subscribe to that portion of the majority’s analysis which suggests that there may be some valid *347double jeopardy claims “overlooked” but that this “minimal risk” is “counterbalanced by the numerous meritless claims that will be identified and excluded.” Majority op. at 291. In my view, there is nothing to “counterbalance” because the risk that “a legitimate [double jeopardy] claim may on rare occasions be overlooked by a hearing court and the appellate court,” id., is virtually non-existent given the meaningful opportunity for a defendant to seek interlocutory discretionary review of a lower court’s determination that the double jeopardy claim is frivolous.1
A defendant who believes that the trial court erred in dismissing his double jeopardy claim as frivolous may seek interlocutory appeal by permission under 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 702(b) and Chapter 13 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, and may seek a stay of the retrial, pending determination of the petition for permission to appeal an interlocutory order, from the lower court or an appellate court. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 702(c).2 If the lower court and/or the Superior Court denies an application for a stay, the defendant may seek review of that denial by this Court. In cases where the double jeopardy claim is not obviously frivolous, either the Superior Court or this Court would certainly grant the stay of retrial in order to secure timely appellate review of the arguably meritorious double jeopardy claim. With this mechanism in existence, it is extremely unlikely that a legitimate double jeopardy claim will somehow “slip through the cracks” as the majority implies. The mechanism does ensure, however, that interlocutory review of the trial court’s determination that a double jeopardy claim is frivolous would be discretionary, not as of right, and would be the exception, not the norm.
*348I dissent to the mandate in this case to the extent that the majority fails to dispose of this double jeopardy claim on the merits. While we have ruled today that automatic Bolden appeals from frivolous claims will not be permitted, nevertheless this Court has exercised plenary jurisdiction over the entire proceeding including the appeal on the merits. In reviewing the record and the able opinion of Judge Charles B. Smith of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County, it is abundantly clear that James Brady’s double jeopardy claim is, as Judge Smith states, “manifestly frivolous,” “devoid of merit,” and interposed solely for the purposes of delay. Thus, instead of allowing the defendant to relitigate his frivolous double jeopardy issue at a later date, I would dismiss the appeal on the merits of the double jeopardy claim, and would remand this matter to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County to proceed to trial to determine appellee’s guilt or innocence. That determination is long overdue.

. At worst, such risk exists only to the same extent that an appellate court might ever “overlook” a legitimate claim or issue raised on appeal.

. Where the lower court refuses to amend its order to include the "certifying” statement required by 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 702(b), a petition for review of the unappealable order of denial is the proper mode for determining whether the case justifies “prerogative appellate review.” Pa.R.A.P. Rule 1311, Note.