Court Opinion

ID: 9694665
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:50:35.732241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:04.538890
License: Public Domain

*205VAN der VOORT, Judge,
dissenting:
The primary issue in this case is whether or not the trial judge informed the defendant sufficiently of the requirements of Pa.R.Crim.P. 1123(c). The Majority holds that the trial judge did not advise the defendant that only the grounds set forth in post trial motions might be raised on appeal. The colloquy between the court, the appellant and his counsel appears in full in the Majority Opinion. In part of the colloquy the trial judge advised the defendant as follows:
“. . . your attorney will file in this Court papers which will bring before the Court the question of whether or not the evidence was sufficient to warrant these verdicts and whether or not the Court made any errors during the course of the trial. You have ten days in which to file these motions. If you do not file these motions then you cannot appeal your case to a higher Court except on the ground of the legality of sentence that the Court may impose. If you file those motions, the Court must then rule upon those motions. . . .”
In my judgment this advice to the defendant and his counsel sufficiently alerted the appellant that only the grounds set forth in post trial motions could be raised on appeal.
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the judgment of sentence.