Opinion

Commonwealth v. McGinley

  • 449 Pa. Super. 130
  • 673 A.2d 343
  • 1996 Pa. Super. LEXIS 331
Court
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Filed
Mar 11, 1996
Status
Published
Author
Sole
On the bench
Beck, Cirillo, Del, Elliott, Ford, McEWEN, Popovich, Rowley, Saylor, Sole, Tamilia
Cited by
7 cases
Authority
More cited than 4.9%

The opinion

DEL SOLE, Judge,

concurring:

I agree with the Majority in affirming the trial court decision not to require the prosecution of this private criminal complaint. However, I cannot agree with the conclusion that this Court’s en banc decision in Commonwealth v. Brown, — *141 Pa.Super. —, 669 A.2d 984 (1995) established the standard of review as set forth on page 134-36 of the Majority Opinion.

I am of the view that the Concurring Opinion of Judge Kelly sets forth a correct analysis of our review function in this type of case. A trial court’s determination whether a prosecutor grossly abused discretion in refusing to approve a private criminal complaint, is not a discretionary act by the trial judge. Rather, it is a legal conclusion based on the record, and, necessitates our examination of the exercise of the prosecutor’s discretion.

For this reason and because the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 5 § 9, guarantees the right of appellate review of decisions of courts of record, I cannot subscribe to the dicta expressed in the Majority Opinion. Further, to limit review of policy-based prosecutorial decisions to the trial court would prevent prosecutors from appealing trial decision’s to approve a private criminal complaint. In my view, since review itself is a serious excursion into the executive branch functions, the executive must be able to have appellate review.

BECK and POPOVICH, JJ., join.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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