Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

275 Pa. Super. 373

418 A.2d 1336

Commonwealth v. Doyle

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

Decided October 19, 1979

Superior Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1979-10-19

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Although Judge Spaeth in Wicks noted that this court has never required the sentencing judge to specifically cite or utilize the exact language of the Sentencing Code, the result strongly intimated that such a practice would be all but required unless, on appeal, this court could glean from the words of the trial court that the Code was indeed considered. Instantly, the majority reiterates and enlarges on the technicalities of sentencing, resolutely marching, to a cadence set by Wicks , down a path which must eventually lead to a requirement that a sentencing judge quote chapter and verse of the Sentencing Code in order to satisfy our standard. As I was not on the Wicks panel, I had no voice in its outcome, although I harbored grave doubts as to its rationale. Here, however, I am permitted a word on the tortured course the majority travels, and that word is “ridiculous.””

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 289 Pa. Super. 411 - Commonwealth v. Walton, Commonwealth v. Devers

Relies on Commonwealth v. Riggins · Commonwealth v. Kostka · 265 Pa. Super. 305 - Commonwealth v. Wicks

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1979-10-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 85 later decisions — most recently June 2005 · most notably Commonwealth v. Devers (1988), 328 Pa. Super. 60 - Commonwealth v. Royer (1984)

85 state decisions

7801979198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PRICE, Judge,

¶1concurring:

¶2Several interesting and not altogether wholesome developments have been reflected in our decisions since our supreme court ordered us to operate in panels. One such concern is the increasingly fine web we are spinning around trial courts as regards sentencing procedures. In Commonwealth v. Wicks, 265 Pa.Super. 305, 401 A.2d 1223 (1979), for example, this court remanded the case for resentencing on the basis that the sentencing judge failed to adhere to the mandates of Commonwealth v. Riggins, 474 Pa. 115, 377 A.2d 140 (1977). Although Judge Spaeth in Wicksnoted that this court has never required the sentencing judge to specifically cite or utilize the exact language of the Sentencing Code, the result strongly intimated that such a practice would be all but required unless, on appeal, this court could glean from the words of the trial court that the Code was indeed considered. Instantly, the majority reiterates and enlarges on the technicalities of sentencing, resolutely marching, to a cadence set by Wicks, down a path which must eventually lead to a requirement that a sentencing judge quote chapter and verse of the Sentencing Code in order to satisfy our standard. As I was not on the Wickspanel, I had no voice in its outcome, although I harbored grave doubts as to its rationale. Here, however, I am permitted a word on the tortured course the majority travels, and that word is “ridiculous.” I do not read Commonwealth v. Kostka, 475 Pa. 85, 379 A.2d 884 (1977), Commonwealth v. Riggins, supra,and other authority from our supreme court to require such a super-technical approach.

¶3Clearly, I agree, that on the facts of this appeal, the judgment of sentence should be affirmed. In my view, the *392trial judge went well beyond that which was required of him.

VAN der VOORT, J., joins in this concurring opinion.
/275/pasuper/373 · .json · Public domain