Com. v. Slick

• Decision Date: 25 March 1994
• Citation: 432 Pa.Super. 563,639 A.2d 482
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. William SLICK, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 482

639 A.2d 482

432 Pa.Super. 563

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. William SLICK, Appellee.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 9, 1993.

Filed March 25, 1994.

Amil M. Minora, Asst. Dist. Atty., Scranton, for Com., appellant.

Lawrence J. Monor, Scranton, for appellee.

Before WIEAND, OLSZEWSKI and POPOVICH, JJ.

POPOVICH, Judge:

We are asked to review the May 24, 1993, order of court granting the appellee/William Slick's petition to quash an information charging him with accomplice to murder in the first and third degree filed by the appellant/District Attorney of Lackawanna County. We reverse.

The standard of review was articulated by our Supreme Court in In re Petition of Acchione, 425 Pa. 23, 227 A.2d 816, 820 (1967); namely:

... courts will not review the actions of governmental bodies or administrative tribunals involving acts of discretion, in the absence of bad faith, fraud, capricious action or abuse of power; they will not inquire into the wisdom of such actions or into the details of the manner adopted to carry them into execution. It is true that the mere possession of discretionary power by an administrative body does not make it wholly immune from judicial review, but the scope of that review is limited to the determination of whether there has been a manifest and flagrant abuse of discretion or a purely arbitrary execution of the agency's duties or functions. That the court might have a different opinion or judgment in regard to the action of the agency is not a sufficient ground for interference; judicial discretion may not be substituted for administrative discretion.

Accord Pennsylvania Social Services Local 668 v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 481 Pa. 81, 392 A.2d 256, 259-260 (1978).

Our review of the record discloses that on April 14, 1979, the body of Russell Loomis was found shot to death in Springbrook Township, Lackawanna County. It was not until 1991 that a Lackawanna County grand jury began to hear testimony concerning the homicide.

One of the accused, Ronald Hull, testified before the grand jury that he was present before the April 11, 1979, murder took place. The other co-conspirators were Richard Young, George Cornell and the appellant. This group met to discuss how to rid themselves of Loomis, who, at the time, was cooperating with an FBI investigation involving the conspirators' business practices.

More specifically, Hull testified that on the day of the shooting, he saw Young, Cornell, Loomis and the appellant. It appears that, as a ruse, Loomis had been told by Hull and the others that he was going to be the recipient of a vehicle if he assisted in removing it from the woods. Hull also recalled that the group left a business establishment together and that Young informed Hull to take Loomis' vehicle to the Wyoming Valley Mall and leave it there. Young informed Hull to phone Young's brother-in-law to obtain a ride back from the mall. Hull testified that he did as he was told and met Young and Cornell at Young's mother's home in Duryea, Pennsylvania, where Young and Cornell discussed the murder of Loomis.

With regard to the appellant's role in the murder, Hull indicated before the grand jury that the appellant was present at a business establishment when Young and Cornell left in Loomis' company on the night of the shooting. Hull further testified that the day following the incident the appellant informed him "its over we're safe" or words to that effect. Additionally, Hull disclosed that a few days prior to the killing, the appellant and Young were attempting to locate a pick and shovel in order to dig Loomis' grave. The grand jury, based on all the evidence received, recommended that Young and Cornell be charged with first and third degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. As for the appellant and Hull, the grand jury recommended that they be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. This was approved by court order.

Procedurally, the grand jury's presentment was used as the factual basis for the affidavit of probable cause leading to the issuance of arrest warrants for the appellant and his co-conspirators. Of note, contrary to the grand jury's recommendation and the court's order that it be adhered to, the Commonwealth charged the appellant with first and third degree murder, as well as conspiracy.

At the preliminary hearing, after the Commonwealth rested its case, the appellant's motion to dismiss the first and third degree murder charges was granted, but the criminal conspiracy charge was held for court. Moreover, prior to the close of the hearing, the Commonwealth was permitted, over the appellant's objection, to amend the complaint to charge him with first degree murder as an accomplice and third degree murder as an accomplice.

Following hearings on the appellant's motion to quash the criminal information and his petition for habeas corpus, the court granted the petition and quashed the charges of accomplice to murder in the first and third degree. In opposition to the action taken, the Commonwealth perfected the instant appeal and raises the following question:

WHETHER THE SUPERVISING JUDGE OF AN INVESTIGATIVE GRAND JURY HAS THE AUTHORITY TO PREVENT THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY FROM PROSECUTING A WRONGDOER TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW OR WHETHER THE USE OF THE PRESENTMENT OF THE GRAND JURY AS AN AFFIDAVIT OR PROBABLE CAUSE FOR AN ARREST WARRANT LIMITS THE COMMONWEALTH TO CHARGING ACCORDING TO THE RECOMMENDATION CONTAINED IN THE PRESENTMENT[?]

Before embarking on a resolution of the issues posed, we wish to present an historical and legislative overview of the role of the grand jury to appreciate its purpose in the criminal justice system.

The grand jury system, as an institution, has existed since 1166. In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 813 F.Supp. 1451, 1458 (D.Col.1992) (Footnote omitted). In England, for example, the grand juries functioned exclusively as the King's investigatory and accusatory arm. They were expected to reach out into the community, retrieve information of wrongdoing and report to the court. Indictments were based solely on the grand jurors' rendition of the local gossip, under oath, before a judge. See Fields v. Soloff, 920 F.2d 1114, 1117 (2nd Cir.1990), citing R. Walker & M. Walker, The English Legal System 14-15 (1972). It is this historic practice of investigating and generating accusatory reports, called "presentments," ¹ which constitute what has come to be known as the grand jury's "sword" power. Id.

Slower to evolve was the role of the grand jury as a buffer against government prosecution--its "shield" function. In fact, in the Fourteenth century, grand juries were hearing charges brought by outside sources, listening to the evidence of others and witnesses of events under scrutiny. See P. Devlin,Trial by Jury 10-12 (1956). More specifically, deliberations began to focus on whether, not merely which, persons under government suspicion should be indicted. By the end of the Seventeenth century, the grand jury had matured into a independent and formidable power, i.e., juries refused to indict people perceived as innocent, despite intense pressure from the King. No longer instruments of the crown, they sought aggressively to defend against biased prosecutions. Fields, supra, 920 F.2d at 1117.

Grand jury practices expanded to the American colonies, where they devoted most of their time to indictments and presentments. See generally Younger, The People's Panel: The Grand Jury in the United States, 1634-1941 (1963). However, it was the grand jury's power to thwart unwarranted government persecution of innocent citizens which our founding fathers sought to preserve in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury." This provision has not been interpreted to confer plenary indictment power upon the grand jury. See United States v. Cox, 342 F.2d 167, 189 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 935, 85 S.Ct. 1767, 14 L.Ed.2d 700 (1965). As such, because indictments wield the power to ruin lives and reputations, concert of action between the grand jury and the government attorney has been labelled a sound precondition. Fields, supra, 920 F.2d at 1117. Stated otherwise, "[t]he authority of the prosecutor to seek an indictment has long been understood to be "coterminous with the authority of the grand jury to entertain [the prosecutor's] charges.' " United States v. Williams, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 1735, 1745, 118 L.Ed.2d 352 (1992), quoting United States v. Thompson, 251 U.S. 407, 414, 40 S.Ct. 289, 292, 64 L.Ed. 333 (1920). Nonetheless, the grand jury is an institution separate from the judicial branch, over whose functioning the courts do not preside, and this is "rooted in long centuries of Anglo-American history." See Hannah v. Larche, 363 U.S. 420, 490, 80 S.Ct. 1502, 1544, 4 L.Ed.2d 1307 (1960). In fact, the whole history of its function is that it belongs to no branch of the institutional government, serving as a kind of buffer or referee between the Government and the people. See United States v. Williams, supra, 504 U.S. at ----, 112 S.Ct. at 1742 (Citations omitted), wherein it is written that:

The grand jury's functional independence from the judicial branch is evident both in the scope of its power to investigate, criminal wrongdoing, and in the manner in which the power is exercised. "Unlike [a] [c]ourt, whose jurisdiction is predicated upon a specific case or controversy, the grand jury 'can investigate merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even because it wants assurance that it is not.' " It need not identify the offender it suspects, or even "the precise nature of the offense" it is investigating. The [federal] grand jury requires no authorization from its constituting court to initiate an...