Court Opinion

ID: 9646776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:10:50.761276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:41.780974
License: Public Domain

LIPEZ, Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot accept the majority’s interpretation of Commonwealth v. Akridge, 492 Pa. 90, 422 A.2d 487 (1980), which states in full:
This matter comes before us on petitioner’s petition for allowance of appeal from the Superior Court’s order remanding for an evidentiary hearing on the question of whether or not the Commonwealth, at two prior hearings on Commonwealth’s petitions for extension of time under Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100, had sufficient evidence to establish its “due diligence” requirement under that rule, Commonwealth v. Akridge, 275 Pa.Super. 513, 419 A.2d 18 (1980).
In our view, such a remand for a “second bite” of the Commonwealth’s evidentiary burden on the “due diligence” requirement of Rule 1100 is in contradiction to the mandates we set forth in Commonwealth v. Ehredt, 485 Pa. 191, 401 A.2d 358 (1979).
We therefore grant the petition for allowance of appeal and reverse the order of the Superior Court with direction that petitioner be discharged.
The majority holds: (1) Akridge must be given purely prospective application; and (2) even if Akridge applies retrospectively, we should nevertheless affirm here because due diligence, which the Commonwealth failed to prove at the pre-trial extension “hearings,” was established in the hearing before Judge Kremer at the post-verdict stage. Regrettably, I can find no basis for either conclusion.
*142The sole authority for the Supreme Court’s summary reversal in Akridge was Commonwealth v. Ehredt, supra, 485 Pa. at 195-96, 401 A.2d at 361, quoting Commonwealth v. Antonuccio, 257 Pa.Super. 535, 537, 390 A.2d 1366, 1367 (1978): “[m]ere assertions of due diligence and unproven facts, do not establish cause for an extension under Rule 1100(c).” Antonuccio also stated:
Under Commonwealth v. Mayfield, 469 Pa. 214, 364 A.2d 1345 (1976), the trial court may grant an extension under Rule 1100(c) only upon a record showing of:
(1) The “due diligence” of the prosecution ....
Id. (emphasis in original).
Hence it is clear under Akridge that after October 8,1976, which was the date of decision in Commonwealth v. Mayfield, supra, no Rule 1100(c) extension is valid unless the court granting the extension has the Commonwealth’s due diligence established on the record before it at the time the extension is granted. Here all extensions were granted long after Mayfield, without a record showing of due diligence. Under our Supreme Court’s interpretation of Rule 1100, appellant is therefore entitled to discharge.