Court Opinion

ID: 9713416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:15:00.617375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:18.635053
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result reached by the majority but am unable to join Part I of its opinion.
I should hold that appellant was not entitled to a lineup because he did not make a timely request for one. See Majority at 794, n. 11. Had appellant made a timely request, I should find the case difficult. Judge CERCONE’s reasoning in Commonwealth v. Sexton, 246 Pa.Super. 30, 369 A.2d 794 (1977), wears very well. I did not join him in Sexton, for I concluded that our Supreme Court had not gone so far, and that the lower court had therefore been justified in denying the motion to require a lineup. In an appropriate case I should be willing to reexamine this issue. The majority’s reliance on Commonwealth v. Evans, 460 Pa. 313, 333 A.2d 743 (1975), is, in my opinion, misplaced. The opinion there does state that “[w]e can find no support in law” for the defendant’s argument “that he has a constitutional right to a pre-trial lineup and that the Commonwealth’s failure to conduct such a lineup requires a reversal.” 460 Pa. at 315-16, 333 A.2d at 745. However, this statement is made without any discussion of the facts, and is unsupported by any citation. It therefore cannot be said that the Court considered whether in certain circumstances, and upon timely request, a defendant might have a right to a pre-trial lineup.