Com. v. DeBlase

• Decision Date: 29 August 1995
• Citation: 665 A.2d 427,542 Pa. 22
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Thomas DeBLASE, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 427

665 A.2d 427

542 Pa. 22

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Thomas DeBLASE, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted Oct. 7, 1994.

Decided Aug. 29, 1995.

[542 Pa. 26] Samuel C. Stretton, Philadelphia, for T. DeBlase.

Mary McNeil Killinger, Norristown, for Commonwealth.

Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

CASTILLE, Justice.

This case presents the sole issue of whether the three year, eight month delay of appellant's trial during which this Court considered appellant's second allocatur petition violated appellant's rights to a speedy trial and to due process so as to warrant the dismissal of all charges against him. We affirm the order of the Superior Court on the basis that no speedy trial violation occurred. The delay in appellant's murder trial resulted from his choice to appeal an interlocutory order, thereby subjecting himself to the deliberative process of the appellate courts.

For the purpose of this appeal, we adopt the Superior Court's description of the factual and procedural histories of this case:

The dead body of David Swinehart, a wealthy real estate developer, was found on January 15, 1982, in a vehicle which had been parked in an alley in Pottstown, Montgomery County. Death had been caused by bludgeoning. Charges were not filed until May 11, 1985, when DeBlase, the victim's nephew, his brother Jeffrey, Terry Lee Maute and Arthur Hall were arrested for the crime. A preliminary hearing was held for DeBlase on May 31, 1985, after which the charges of murder, robbery and conspiracy were returned to court. DeBlase was arraigned on July 24, 1985.

A portion of the Commonwealth's evidence consisted of intercepted conversations in which DeBlase had been a participant. Some conversations had been intercepted by an electronic wiretap and others by virtue of a body wire which had been worn consensually by DeBlase's brother, Jeffrey. DeBlase filed a petition to suppress this evidence and, after hearing before the Honorable Horace Davenport, was successful in suppressing evidence obtained through both the wiretap and the body wire. The Commonwealth appealed to the Superior Court which, on September 22, 1986, affirmed the suppression of the wiretap evidence but reversed the suppression of statements recorded as a result of the body wire. See Commonwealth v. DeBlase, 357 Pa.Super. 71, 515 A.2d 564 (1986). A petition for allocatur was granted by the Supreme Court; but, on January 22, 1988, the appeal was dismissed as having been improvidently granted. See Commonwealth v. DeBlase, 517 Pa. 323, 536 A.2d 339 (1988).

Upon remand, trial was set for June 27, 1988. DeBlase, however, retained present counsel, who filed a second motion to suppress the body wire evidence on grounds that the evidence had been obtained in violation of Article I, Section 8, of the Pennsylvania Constitution as interpreted by the Superior Court in Commonwealth v. Schaeffer, 370 Pa.Super. 179, 536 A.2d 354 (1987) (en banc). This petition was also heard by Judge Davenport who, in reliance on the decision in Commonwealth v. Schaeffer, supra, suppressed the body wire evidence on June 23, 1988. The Commonwealth appealed. The Superior Court, on April 5, 1989, reversed the suppression order and remanded for reconsideration in light of appellate court decisions in Commonwealth v. Blystone, 519 Pa. 450, 549 A.2d 81 (1988), aff'd in Blystone v. Pennsylvania, 494 U.S. 299, 110 S.Ct. 1078, 108 L.Ed.2d 255 (1990); Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 519 Pa. 415, 548 A.2d 1211 (1988), and Commonwealth v. Brion, 381 Pa.Super. 83, 552 A.2d 1105 (1989), allocatur granted, 534 Pa. 652, 627 A.2d 730 (1993). See Commonwealth v. DeBlase, 390 Pa.Super. 651, 561 A.2d 817 (1989). On April 26, 1989, DeBlase filed a petition in the Supreme Court for allowance of appeal.

After twenty-one (21) months had elapsed without a decision on his petition for allowance of an appeal to the Supreme Court, DeBlase filed in the Supreme Court, on January 24, 1991, an Emergency Petition for Dismissal on grounds that his rights to a speedy trial and due process had been violated by delay in the appellate process. When the Supreme Court did not act on this [second] petition, DeBlase filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1991, a petition for writ of habeas corpus. This petition was assigned to a federal magistrate for review.

On August 26, 1991, DeBlase filed in the federal court a petition for bail and, following hearing, was released on restrictive bail in November, 1991, after six and one-half (6 1/2) years in prison. DeBlase continue[d] on bail [until August 3, 1994], ... subject to a curfew and electronic monitoring.

On December 2, 1992, the federal magistrate filed a report containing his conclusion that DeBlase's right to a speedy trial had been violated. He recommended that the charges against DeBlase be dismissed unless he be brought to trial within one hundred twenty (120) days. The prosecution then filed in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania a petition for extraordinary relief in which it urged the Court to act on DeBlase's petition for allocatur. On December 28, 1992, three years and eight months after the petition for allowance of an appeal had been filed, the Supreme Court entered an order denying the petition for allocatur without prejudice and denying the emergency petition as moot. Commonwealth v. Deblase, 533 Pa. 617, 619 A.2d 699 (1992).

DeBlase then filed a petition in the federal court seeking to stay the criminal proceedings in the state court pending a determination of his petition for habeas corpus. This petition was denied. Also denied was the petition for habeas corpus. This order was appealed by DeBlase to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. [Appellant subsequently withdrew his appeal and the Court of Appeals dismissed the case as moot].

When the case was returned to the trial court by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, DeBlase filed an omnibus pretrial motion in which he requested the trial court, inter alia, to dismiss the charges on grounds that his rights to a speedy trial and to due process of law had been violated by the delay in commencing trial. After a hearing, the trial court, on April 19, 1993, granted the motion and discharged the defendant.

431 Pa.Super. at 102-105, 635 A.2d at 1092-1093 (footnotes omitted).

The Commonwealth appealed appellant's discharge to the Superior Court. Pending the appeal, the federal court dissolved its order permitting appellant to stay confined at his residence subject to electronic monitoring. And, because Montgomery County Pretrial Services did not have electronic monitoring capabilities, the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas revoked appellant's bail. The Superior Court, by its order dated January 7, 1994, reversed the trial court's discharge order, finding (1) the delay in appellant's trial attributable to his appellate litigation of pretrial suppression motions did not violate his speedy trial rights; and (2) appellant presented no evidence of specific prejudice from the three year, eight month delay during which this Court considered appellant's second Petition for Allowance of Appeal. ¹ Following the order by which the Superior Court denied appellant's motion for reargument or reconsideration, appellant then filed for allowance of appeal to this Court which we granted on July 13, 1994.

A speedy trial analysis mandates a two-step inquiry: (1) whether the delay violated Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 1100; and, if not, then (2) whether the delay violated the defendant's right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. See Jones v. Commonwealth, 495 Pa. 490, 499, 434 A.2d 1197, 1201 (1981) ("although Rule 1100 was designed to implement the constitutional rights of an accused to a speedy trial, ... constitutional guarantees [to a speedy trial] continue to provide a separate basis for asserting a claim of undue delay in appropriate cases") (citations omitted).

Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 1100

We therefore begin with an analysis of our Rules of Criminal Procedure. This Court promulgated Rule 1100 to give substantive effect to the United States Supreme Court's observation that state courts could, pursuant to their supervisory powers, establish fixed time periods within which criminal cases must normally be brought by the Commonwealth. Commonwealth v. Terfinko, 504 Pa. 385, 391, 474 A.2d 275, 278 (1984) (referring to Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972)). Rule 1100 provides that a trial must commence at most no later than 365 days from the date on which the criminal complaint is filed unless there is excusable delay caused by the defendant, his counsel or court congestion. Pa.R.Crim.P. 1100(a)(3). "Excusable delay" for purposes of Rule 1100 review includes delay caused by appellate review of pretrial motions. Jones, supra, 495 Pa. at 497-498, 434 A.2d at 1200-1201 (delay of two and one-half years did not violate Rule 1100 since timely appellate review of suppression motion divested the trial court of authority to proceed, and thus acted as an automatic supersedeas of the rule). Accord Commonwealth v. Marconi, 523 Pa. 342, 346, 567 A.2d 628, 630 (1989) (120-day limitation period for retrial set forth in speedy trial rule commences on date that all appeals are disposed of and record is remanded from appellate court); Commonwealth v. Ferri, 410 Pa.Super. 67, 71, 599 A.2d 208, 210 (1991), appeal denied, 534 Pa. 652, 627 A.2d 730 (1993), cert. denied- , 510 U.S. 1164, 114 S.Ct. 1189, 127 L.Ed.2d 540 (1994) (four year delay incident to Commonwealth's interlocutory appeal from order severing drug conspiracy charges from homicide charges was excludable time under speedy trial rule); Commonwealth v. Reiprish, ...