Commonwealth v. Shelhorse

381 A.2d 1305, 252 Pa. Super. 475, 1977 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2893
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 28, 1977
Docket516
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 381 A.2d 1305 (Commonwealth v. Shelhorse) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Shelhorse, 381 A.2d 1305, 252 Pa. Super. 475, 1977 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2893 (Pa. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinions

SPAETH, Judge:

This is an appeal from a judgment of sentence under the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act, Act [478]*478of April 14, 1972, P.L. 233, No. 64, § 1 et seq., 35 P.S. § 780-101 et seq.

Appellant, an osteopathic physician, was the subject of an undercover investigation; on nineteen occasions between November 13, 1972, and September 13, 1973, police officers visited his office and obtained prescriptions for controlled substances. This investigation culminated in a search of appellant’s office during which appellant’s file box of patient information cards was seized. Appellant was charged with dispensing controlled substances without proper physical examinations, in violation of § 780-113(a)(14) of the above Act.1 He was tried on the charge, but the trial ended when the court granted appellant’s demurrer on the ground that the evidence was insufficient. The Commonwealth then initiated this prosecution, charging appellant with violation of §§ 780-113(a)(21) and 113(a)(28) of the Act, which require the keeping of certain records.2 No new investigation was made, the Commonwealth introducing into evidence against appellant the same patient information cards seized in the earlier search of his office.

Appellant was fined $1000 and placed on probation for six months for violating § 780-113(a)(21), and fined $2000 and [479]*479placed on probation for two years, consecutive to the first probationary period, for violating § 780-113(a)(28).

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Appellant argues that the second prosecution was a violation of Commonwealth v. Campana, 452 Pa. 233, 304 A.2d 432 (1973), vacated and remanded, 414 U.S. 808, 94 S.Ct. 73, 38 L.Ed.2d 44 (1973), on remand, 455 Pa. 622, 314 A.2d 854 (1974), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 969, 94 S.Ct. 3172, 41 L.Ed.2d 1139 (1974), and of the Crimes Code, Act of Dec. 6,1972, P.L. 1482, No. 334, § 1, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 110, under which certain prosecutions are barred by prior prosecutions for a different offense.

Campana, supra, parallels the Double Jeopardy Clause, which reads, “[N]or shall any persons be subject for the offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” The clause serves at least two purposes. First, it ensures that “the State with all its resources and power [will] not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity . . . .” Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957). Second, the Clause “responds as well to the increasingly widespread recognition that the consolidation in one lawsuit of all issues arising out of a single transaction or occurrence best promotes justice, economy, and convenience.” Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 454, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1199, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970).

Following the first Campana opinion, the legislature passed § 110 of the Crimes Code, supra. Section 110, the Supreme Court said in the second Campana opinion, comports with Campana. It provides:

§ 110. When prosecution barred by former prosecution for different offense
Although a prosecution is for a violation of a different provision of the statutes than a former prosecution or is [480]*480based on different facts, it is barred by such former prosecution under the following circumstances:
(1) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal or in a conviction as defined in section 109 of this title3 (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for:
(1) any offense of which the defendant could have been convicted on the first prosecution;
(ii) any offense based on the same conduct or arising from the same criminal episode, if such offense was known to the appropriate prosecuting officer at the time of the commencement of the first trial and was within the jurisdiction of a single court unless the court ordered a separate trial of the charge of such offense; or
(iii) the same conduct, unless:
(A) the offense of which the defendant was formerly convicted or acquitted and the offense for which he is subsequently prosecuted each requires proof of a fact not required by the other and the law defining each of such offenses is intended to prevent a substantially different harm or evil; or
(B) the second offense was not consummated when the former trial began.
(2) The former prosecution was terminated, after the indictment was found, by an acquittal or by a final order or judgment for the defendant which has not been set aside, reversed or vacated and which acquittal final order or judgment necessarily required a determination inconsistent with a fact which must be established for conviction of the second offense.
(3) The former prosecution was improperly terminated, as improper termination is defined in section 109 of [481]*481this title (relating to when prosecution barred by former prosecution for same offense) and the subsequent prosecution is for an offense of which the defendant could have been convicted had the former prosecution not been improperly terminated.

Section 110 is a cumbersome statute. When we apply it to a case like appellant’s—in which the defendant prevailed on a demurrer to the evidence in a prior prosecution—an initial problem is which subsection of § 110 to apply. At first glance, subsections (1) and (2) appear possible. The answer is found in the structure of the section when it is read as a whole, for it appears that each of the three subsections is concerned with a different aspect of the double jeopardy problem.

Section 110(1) is concerned to protect a defendant from being subjected to the embarrassment, expense, and ordeal that arise from repeated attempts to convict him. See Green v. United States, supra. Thus, this section protects a defendant even if he was convicted in the former prosecution.

Section 110(2) is concerned only with the problem of collateral estoppel explored in Ashe v. Swenson, supra, which held that where a former prosecution necessarily established an ultimate fact in favor of a defendant, a subsequent prosecution depending upon a contrary finding was barred.4 This subsection, therefore, has no pertinence to the present case.

Section 110(3) is closely related, and in the nature of a corollary, to Section 110(1); it protects a defendant from the oppression that arises from re-prosecuting him when a former prosecution has been improperly terminated.

[482]

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Commonwealth v. Shelhorse
381 A.2d 1305 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
381 A.2d 1305, 252 Pa. Super. 475, 1977 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-shelhorse-pasuperct-1977.