Court Opinion

ID: 9641916
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:43:12.995577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:40.803342
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
concurring:
I whole-heartedly join parts 2 through 5 of the opinion in this case, on the issue of the right to jury selection in public.
I also agree that the failure to file a Rule 1925(b) statement of matters complained of in this case does not waive the objection to the lower court’s exclusion of the public during jury selection.
However, I disagree with my distinguished colleagues that the inquiry involves an analysis that is “equitable in nature.” Pennsylvania Rule of Appellate Procedure 1925(b) provides that a failure to comply with the rule “may be considered by the appellate court as a waiver of all objections____” Our supreme court has discussed the waiver provision of Rule 1925(b), and has stated that the waiver provision “is properly invoked only where failure to file a statement or omission from a statement of issues raised on appeal defeats effective appellate review.” Commonwealth v. Silver, 499 Pa. 228, 238, 452 A.2d 1328, 1333 (1982). See also Commonwealth v. Crowley, 259 Pa.Super. *386204, 393 A.2d 789 (1978). Since defense counsel’s objection and the court’s ruling on it are in the record and were preserved for review, the question as to whether we should exercise our discretion is answered in appellant’s favor. Any further analysis of the sequence of events in the lower court is in my view unnecessary.