Com. v. Diaz

• Decision Date: 23 March 1978
• Citation: 383 A.2d 852,477 Pa. 122
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Anibal DIAZ, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 852

383 A.2d 852

477 Pa. 122

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Anibal DIAZ, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 16, 1976.

Decided March 23, 1978.

[477 Pa. 123] John W. Packel, Chief, Appeals Div., Asst. Public Defender, for appellant.

F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, Dist. Atty., Steven H. Goldblatt, Asst. Dist. Atty., Chief, Appeals Div., Marianne E. Cox, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.

Before JONES, C. J., and EAGEN, O'BRIEN, ROBERTS, POMEROY, NIX and MANDERINO, JJ.

OPINION

MANDERINO, Justice.

The issue in this appeal is whether the appellant, Anibal Diaz, would be placed in double jeopardy by being tried on criminal charges to which he has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

There were various procedural facets involved in this litigation before this appeal. Only those relevant to the issue before us are recited. The trial court summarized the facts relevant to appellant's arrest and conviction as follows:

"On April 13, 1974, the defendant, Anibal Diaz, was arrested and charged with Attempted Rape, Kidnapping, Indecent Assault and Simple Assault. On April 18, 1974, the defendant appeared before Judge Thomas N. Shiomos. The defendant knowingly and intelligently waived the preliminary hearing, presentment to the Grand Jury and indictment, and entered a plea of guilty on the Municipal Court transcript to the charge of Attempted Rape. In return for the guilty plea, the Commonwealth moved to nolle prosse the remaining charges. Thereupon, Judge Shiomos, sitting as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, accepted the guilty plea and sentenced the defendant to five years probation."

On April 22, 1974, appellant was rearrested for the same charges. On April 29, 1974 he moved to dismiss the complaints and quash the warrant for rearrest. Relief was denied. On June 10, 1974 appellant was indicted, and on September 23, 1974, appellant moved to dismiss the indictments. One of the grounds alleged in support of this motion to dismiss, was a claim that appellant's constitutional rights against double jeopardy were being violated. Relief was again denied. The trial court, however, certified the matter to the Superior Court for immediate review because in its opinion there was involved a controlling question of law to which there was substantial ground for difference of opinion. Act of July 31, 1970, P.L. 673, No. 223, Art. V, § 501, 17 P.S. § 211.501. The Superior Court affirmed. We granted appellant's petition for allowance of appeal, and this appeal followed.

If the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction, appellant was placed in jeopardy, within the meaning of the constitutional protections, on April 13, 1974, when he pleaded guilty in conjunction with the plea bargain and was sentenced for the crimes of which he was accused. Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969). The prosecution argues that the trial court did not have subject matter jurisdiction because an indictment was necessary to invoke that court's jurisdiction. The prosecution relies principally on Commonwealth v. Little, 455 Pa. 163, 314 A.2d 270 (1974), and Commonwealth ex rel. Fagan v. Francies, 53 Pa.Super. 278 (1913). According to the prosecution, these cases hold that a court's subject matter jurisdiction cannot be invoked absent an indictment. We do not accept the prosecution's statement of the holdings of these cases. In Commonwealth v. Little, we said:

"The right to formal notice of charges, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Federal Constitution and by Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is so basic to the fairness of subsequent proceedings that it cannot be waived even if the defendant voluntarily submits to the jurisdiction of the court. Albrecht v. United States, 273 U.S. 1, 47 S.Ct. 250, 71 L.Ed. 505 (1927); Commonwealth ex rel. Fagan v. Francies, 53 Pa.Super. 278 (1913)." (Emphasis added.) 455 Pa. at 168-169, 314 A.2d at 273.

We further said in Little, supra :

"In the case before us, the requirement of notice to the defendant is fully satisfied by the indictment returned by the grand jury." Id. at 169, 314 A.2d at 273.

The prosecution misreads Little. Little said that there must be a "formal notice of charges," and that "the requirement of notice . . . is fully satisfied by the indictment." Little did not say that an indictment was the only way to satisfy the requirement of the formal notice.

Likewise, in Fagan, supra, cited in Little, the Superior Court said:

"The objection that the case was not certified into the oyer and terminer may be regarded as technical, but the objection that no court had power to impose the sentence, except upon an indictment, without the relator's express and unequivocal consent, is not technical but substantial." (Emphasis added.)

Fagan, like Little, was concerned with whether there had been a formal notice of charges. Had there been an "express and unequivocal consent" in Fagan, an indictment would have been dispensable.

Formal notice of the charges is required so that the defendant knows exactly what the accusation is and so that the record will establish exactly what the defendant is guilty of in the event of a conviction. Even a defective indictment, which nonetheless leaves no doubt as to the charges upon which an acquittal is entered, protects a person from being retried in violation of double jeopardy protections. Ball v. United States, 163 U.S. 662, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 41 L.Ed. 300 (1896).

In the case before us, appellant had formal notice of the charges against him. The complaint filed against appellant was not so broad in its allegations that the specific conduct allegedly committed by appellant was in doubt. The complaint was specific as to the date of the crime, identified the victim of the crime, and specifically described the acts alleged to have been done by appellant during the attempted rape. Moreover, the specific facts underlying the charge of attempted rape were formally placed on the record in the presence of the appellant and appellant's counsel:

"(THE PROSECUTOR): The Complainant . . . who is in Court, if she were to testify, would testify that on April 13,...