Court Opinion

ID: 9644053
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:47:34.485446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:08.165513
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO,
Justice, dissenting.
The majority opinion, in footnote seven, concludes that the “appellant and the Commonwealth have both incorrectly assumed that the inadmissibility of the notes of testimony from appellant’s preliminary hearing is governed by the Act of May 23, 1887, P.L. 158, § 3, 19 P.S. § 582 (1964).” The opinion then goes on to apply the common law rule permitting the admission of the notes of testimony from a preliminary hearing in which the accused had a full opportunity to cross-examine the witness.
Whether the testimony is offered as a common law exception, or a statutory exception to the hearsay rule is irrelevant in terms of a defendant’s right to confront witnesses as guaranteed by both the Federal and Pennsylvania constitutions.
*464As I noted in my dissent in Commonwealth v. Velasquez, 449 Pa. 599, 296 A.2d 768 (1972):
“In the most ideal circumstances, the admissibility in a trial of prior reported testimony would not compromise the traditional rights, either evidential or constitutional, of the innocent if the prior reported testimony was properly admissible under identical circumstances in the earlier proceeding. The important and significant identical circumstances would include:
1. Identity of the action
2. Identity of the tribunal’s jurisdiction
3. Identity of the parties
4. Identity of counsel
5. Identity of the proponent and opponent of the testimony
6. Identity of all issues in the action
7. Identity of the issue on which the evidence is offered
8. Identity of the potential consequences of the action to the defendant
9. Identity of the opportunity to cross-examine
If any of the above identities are missing, close scrutiny is required to insure fairness to the innocent. For example, although the opportunity to cross-examine is the same in the present proceeding as in the earlier proceeding, the exercise by counsel of the opportunity to cross-examine may not he the same because the potential consequences of the actions to the defendant are vastly different. Motivation for human conduct is at all times determined by that which is at stake. The loss of a peppercorn is not the loss of liberty — and the loss of liberty is not the loss of life.” (Emphasis added.)
I cannot conclude that the motive for cross-examination at the preliminary hearing and the motive for *465cross-examination at the trial would lead to an “identity of the opportunity to cross-examine” and therefore I would exclude the notes of testimony taken at the preliminary hearing.