Com. v. Carter, B. No. 1478 MDA 2020
Commonwealth v. Carter came before the Superior Court after the defendant was convicted of several sex crimes on 9 different criminal dockets. Following his conviction, he requested bail pending sentencing and appeal. His request was denied. He then filed a notice of appeal. Pursuant to the current rules of Appellate procedure which went into effect in August 2020, requires that in this situation, the defendant should have filed a petition for specialized review. Previously, these orders were considered under chapter 15 which had a specific provision indicating that if an appeal is taken improvidently from an order of court, the papers related to that appeal shall be regarded and acted upon as a petition for review.
However, in August 2020, with the reorganization of the rules of appellate procedure, a new chapter 16 was created to handle these petitions for specialized review which includes review of orders regarding bail. There is no analogous provision directing the court to treat an improvident appeal as a petition for specialized review rather than to quash it as interlocutory. If the Supreme Court had intended the new framework to continue the previous practice, presumable it would have included the proper provisions in the new rule. The court must assume that such an omission manifests the Supreme Courts intent to disallow the regarding of an improperly-filed notice of appeal as a petition for specialized review. Here, as this was an improper filing, the court must quash the appeal as they lack proper jurisdiction to address the merits of the case.
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