Court Opinion

ID: 9634399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:10:05.772634+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:01.752236
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
concurring:
While the majority opinion is a fine and careful expression of view, I do not agree with the interpretation of the majority that the decision of our Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Hude II, 500 Pa. 482, 458 A.2d 177 (1983) must be narrowly construed. I perceive Hude II not as a mere dalliance with a proposition but as a declaration of commitment to the principle that our courts must guard against prosecutorial harassment — whether effected by oversight or by design. The legislature certainly so pronounced when it enacted sections 109 through 112 of the Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 109-112, and this court has itself assumed such a duty. See Commonwealth v. Abbott, 319 Pa.Super. 479, 466 A.2d 644 (1983); Commonwealth v. Mascaro, 260 Pa.Super. 420, 394 A.2d 998 (1978). Nor does this stance of broad interpretation either offend principles of fairness or ignore demands of the pragmatic, since, under section 110, the prosecution need only make application to the court for permission to conduct successive prosecutions. In any event, subject solely to this exception, I join in the opinion of the majority and affirm the judgment of sentence as well as the order refusing the dismissal of certain informations.