Court Opinion

ID: 9701670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:29:53.658141+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:27.181924
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING STATEMENT BY
BECK, J.:
¶ 1 I concur in the result of the majority’s opinion because under our standard of review I conclude that the court did not abuse its discretion. As the majority states Mouzon’s sentence amounts to a life sentence. His offenses were indeed grave and at this stage in his life Mouzon may indeed be a menace to the community and he should be placed in a position where he cannot harm anyone.
¶ 2 The majority emphasizes the need to protect the public, but it states that need overbroadly. Will the public need protection from Mouzon when he is older, for example, when he is sixty years old? Should the sentencing policy of Pennsylvania be such that in the future a sizeable portion of the jail population will be geriatric? Statistics show that people in the geriatric group rarely commit crimes of violence.
¶ 3 The majority also seems to imply that the courts should not look favorably on concurrent sentencing. I must disassociate myself from that conclusion. Sentencing is left to the sound discretion of the judge, and at times that discretion will require concurrent sentences and at other times it will require consecutive sentences.