Court Opinion

ID: 9637940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:27:11.822376+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:01.953453
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. The majority opinion attempts to do two things to which I must voice my opposition. In Commonwealth v. Wayman, 454 Pa. 79, 309 A.2d 784 (1973), this Court held that a motion to suppress an accused’s confession on involuntariness grounds was sufficient to preserve the issue of “unnecessary delay” in arraignment after arrest without a warrant where the length of the period of questioning was a factor to be considered in determining the voluntariness of the confession. The majority opinion attempts to lay Wayman to rest without a proper burial. In his motion to suppress, appellant raised the issue of the voluntariness of his out-of-court statement, and alleged that police threats made during continuous questioning caused his statement to be involuntarily given. He now raises the issue of unnecessary delay prior to arraignment. The issue has thus been properly preserved under Wayman.
Secondly, the majority opinion attempts to establish a new test to answer the allegation of ineffective assistance of trial counsel by saying that if the action — or inaction — complained of would not have required the opposite result at trial, then trial counsel cannot be said to *475have been ineffective. Such a test, it seems to me, would make it virtually impossible to obtain a new trial on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds. This Court has stated that,
“counsel’s assistance is deemed constitutionally effective once we are able to conclude that the particular course chosen by counsel had some reasonable basis designed to effectuate his client’s interests.” (Emphasis in original.)
Commonwealth ex rel. Washington v. Maroney, 427 Pa. 599, 604, 235 A.2d 349, 352 (1967).
I cannot subscribe to the majority’s attempt to, sub silentio, overrule that test.