Com. v. Parrish

• Decision Date: 16 July 1987
• Citation: 515 Pa. 297,528 A.2d 151
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Cheryl M. PARRISH, Appellee. 95 W.D. 1985
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 151

528 A.2d 151

515 Pa. 297

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Cheryl M. PARRISH, Appellee.

95 W.D. 1985

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Sept. 19, 1986.

Decided July 16, 1987.

Appeal No. 95 W.D. Appeal Dkt., 1985 from Order of Superior Court 340 Pa.Super. 528, 490 A.2d 905 (1985) entered March 22, 1985, at No. 370 Pittsburgh 1984, Vacating the Judgment of Sentence of the Court of Common Pleas, Potter County, Criminal Division, entered February 27, 1984, at No. 113 of 1983; Harold B. Fink, Judge.

Jeffrey E. Leber, Dist. Atty., Martha J. Duvall, Asst. Dist. Atty., Coudersport, for appellant.

Jack E. Reagle, Public Defender, Coudersport, for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, MCDERMOTT, HUTCHINSON, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.

ORDER

PER CURIAM.

Motion to Quash Appeal granted for lack of jurisdiction. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9781(f).

LARSEN, J., files a dissenting opinion.

McDERMOTT dissents.

LARSEN, Justice, dissenting.

The majority quashes this appeal for lack of jurisdiction. I dissent. Although the provisions of 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9781(f) appear to preclude review in this Court of the discretionary aspects of sentencing, ¹ I believe the extraordinary posture of this case necessitates our limited review of the appropriate standards to be applied by intermediate appellate courts when they review the discretionary aspects of sentencing.

On August 23, 1983, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Cheryl M. Parrish, appellee herein, got behind the wheel of her automobile after imbibing a considerable quantity of alcohol, ² and, on her way between two drinking establishments in Potter County, struck and killed a fifteen year old boy when her vehicle left the roadway. The victim, William Nickerson, who had been walking with his cousin along Route 6, was lifted off his feet and carried on the hood of appellee's vehicle approximately 110 feet before he fell to the ground. Then, appellee left the scene of the accident and drove to her home. The windshield of appellee's vehicle had been shattered on the right side upon impact with the victim, and a witness observed appellee kicking in the headlight on the right side of her vehicle when she returned home.

Appellee attempted to convince authorities that she was the victim of a hit and run accident in front of her residence, but her vehicle, a light blue compact model, matched the description of the vehicle involved in the homicide along Route 6. Additionally, police officers observed blood stains, fiber samples and hair on the hood, windshield and headlamp of appellee's vehicle. Appellee changed her story about the incident several times, finally admitting that she knew she had hit something that night, but she steadfastly maintained that she did not know she had hit and killed a person until she overheard a conversation at police barracks following her arrest.

Appellee was charged with seven violations of the Motor Vehicle Code: homicide by vehicle (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3732); homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3735); driving under the influence (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3731); reckless driving (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3714); leaving the scene of an accident involving death or personal injury (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3742); driving on roadways laned for traffic (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3309); and duty to give information and render aid (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3744). Through her trial counsel, appellee negotiated a plea bargain and entered a plea of guilty to the charges of homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident involving death or personal injury.

Appellee was sentenced in the Court of Common Pleas of Potter County on February 27, 1984, to 1 1/2 to 3 years incarceration on the charge of homicide by vehicle, a consecutive term of 1 to 2 years on the charge of driving under the influence, a concurrent term of 6 months to 1 year on the charge of leaving the scene of an accident, and the payment of fines totalling $1,000.00 plus the costs of prosecution. The prison terms were to be served in the State Correctional Institution at Muncy. The trial judge denied appellee's motion for reconsideration of sentence after hearing on March 19, 1984, and appellee timely appealed to Superior Court on the issue of excessiveness of the sentence imposed.

Superior Court, in a per curiam opinion, 340 Pa.Super. 528, 490 A.2d 905 (1985) (per Cirillo, J., Tamilia, J., and Montgomery, J.J.) acknowledged that none of the individual sentences imposed was in excess of the statutory maximum. ³ Id. at 532, 490 A.2d at 907. That court, however, reviewed the trial court's decision-making process and, substituting its own discretion for that of the trial court, found "each of the individual sentences and hence, the cumulative sentence, to be so manifestly excessive so as to inflict too severe a punishment." Id. Superior Court vacated the sentence and remanded to the trial court for resentencing in conformity with its opinion, which opinion outlined a sentence of 6 month's incarceration in the county jail accompanied by work release and a three year period of probation. Id. at 536, 490 A.2d at 909.

We granted the Commonwealth's Petition for Allowance of Appeal, 508 Pa. 612, 499 A.2d 1063 (1985); and the majority of this Court quashes the appeal, thereby giving tacit approval to the clearly inappropriate review undertaken by the Superior Court, which abused its discretion and the proper scope of appellate review.

It is well settled that the imposition of sentence is within the sound discretion of the sentencing judge and will not be disturbed on appeal absent a manifest abuse of discretion. Commonwealth v. Plank, 498 Pa. 143, 445 A.2d 491 (1982); Commonwealth v. Edrington, 490 Pa. 251, 416 A.2d 455 (1980). An abuse of discretion has been described as the overlooking of pertinent facts, disregard of the force of evidence, commitment of an error of law, or imposition of a sentence exceeding that prescribed by statute. Commonwealth v. Townsend, 497 Pa. 604, 443 A.2d 1139 (1982); Commonwealth v. Edrington, supra. The trial court must weigh the defendant's character against the circumstances of the offense, Commonwealth v. Edrington, supra; must give due consideration to the statutory sentencing guidelines, Commonwealth v. Green, 494 Pa. 406, 431 A.2d 918 (1981); and must impose a sentence which is "consistent with the protection of the public, the gravity of the offense as it relates to the impact on the life of the victim and on the community, and the rehabilitative needs of the defendant." 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9721(b). See Commonwealth v. Tomasso, 506 Pa. 344, 485 A.2d 395 (1984) (per curiam, Larsen, J., dissenting). All of these functions comprise the discretionary aspects of sentencing and are within the bailiwick of the sentencing court, not the appellate court.

It is clear from the record that the trial court, in imposing sentence, painstakingly reviewed the relevant evidence in the case and all of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances relating to the appellee. He agonized over passing a proper sentence, one that was consistent with the requirements of justice under all of the circumstances in the case. Having done so, the trial court imposed a sentence that was, as Superior Court acknowledged, within the sentencing guidelines and not beyond the maximum penalties established by the legislature. The sentence he did impose was not the one which the Superior Court panel would have imposed. Because the sentence is more severe than that which the Superior Court judges would have given does not render the trial judge's sentence a manifest abuse of discretion.

We recognized, when we upheld the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's "drunk driving law," 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3731(a)(4), in Commonwealth v. Mikulan, 504 Pa. 244, 470 A.2d 1339 (1983), that:

traffic deaths commonly exceed 50,000 annually in the United States, and ... approximately one-half of these fatalities are alcohol related.... When we consider as well that over three-quarters of a million human beings are seriously, and often permanently, injured and maimed as a result of alcohol related accidents, the emotional trauma and economic loss experienced by the victims and their families, and the millions of dollars of property damage, it is easy to see that society is faced with a problem of frightening and epidemic dimensions.

Id. at 249, 470 A.2d at 1341 (citations omitted).

The case here is a serious one. A boy of 15 was killed when he was struck by a vehicle operated by appellee who had consumed enough alcohol to be legally intoxicated 90 minutes after the incident. Appellee took affirmative steps and admitted lying to cover up the true events of the evening, before eventually recanting her fabrication and telling a different story. If she had been tried and convicted on the charge of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence (75 Pa.C.S.A. § 3735)--a real possibility in this case--she would have been subject to a three year mandatory minimum sentence. Through the efforts of her attorney in negotiating a plea bargain, the Section 3735 charge was dropped in return for her guilty plea to the three charges on which she was sentenced. The minimum sentence she received was one-half year less than the mandatory minimum provided for by Section 3735. This sentence may be viewed by some to be harsh, but the point is that the trial court did not. A trial judge has the right and obligation to be "harsh" when he has duly considered all relevant circumstances and believes that under the facts such a sentence is warranted. Where the sentence is within the legislative guidelines, appellate courts may not vacate sentences as being manifestly excessive merely because the trial judge imposed a tough sentence where the appellate judges would have given a lenient one.

Therefore, it is equally clear that Superior Court exceeded its scope of appellate review in finding that...