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Commonwealth v. Boczkowski3/23/2004
th eligible were a result of passion, prejudice or some other arbitrary factor. We believe those circumstances introduced an impermissible element of arbitrariness into the eligibility decision.
The Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9121-9148, authorizes the Governor of Pennsylvania to retain a person who is the subject of a request for extradition by another state, if criminal charges are also pending in Pennsylvania, until such time as the individual "has been tried and discharged or convicted and punished in this Commonwealth." Id. § 9140. The trial court in this case entered an order, consistently with the request and agreement of the parties (and consistently with the expression of the Governor) to do exactly that -- i.e., to keep appellant in Pennsylvania until the charges sub judice were finally disposed. Nothing in the Extradition Act authorizes a prosecutor or any other party to ignore, undermine or negate an order staying extradition and transfer a criminal defendant to another jurisdiction. The District Attorney's Office here transferred appellant to North Carolina to be tried for murder in direct violation of a valid court order.
The Commonwealth's after-the-fact explanations do not justify its violation of an existing, clear, and unambiguous court order. If the Commonwealth felt that circumstances had changed and warranted reconsideration or modification of that order to provide for immediate extradition, it should have sought that relief from the court. Such a procedure would have afforded appellant an opportunity to be heard and to challenge the request and would have ensured that a neutral judicial officer made the ultimate legal determination. It may well be that a motion to lift the stay would have been granted, given the change in circumstances represented by the delay occasioned by the Commonwealth's decision to appeal. But, that is not the point. When a governing court order exists, it is for the court and not a party to unilaterally modify or nullify that order. However intentioned, whether good or evil, a party is not authorized to ignore controlling court orders based upon its own view about the existence and effect of a change in circumstances.
An action or factor is arbitrary if it is not cabined by law or principle. See, e.g. Black's Law Dictionary 100 (Seventh Ed. 1999) (defining arbitrary as, inter alia: "1. Depending on individual discretion; specif., determined by a judge rather than by fixed rules, procedures, or law. 2. (Of a judicial decision) founded on prejudice or preference rather than on reason or fact. . . ."); Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 59 (10 th Ed. 2002) (defining arbitrary as, inter alia: "1: depending on individual discretion (as of a judge) and not fixed by law . . . 2a: not restrained or limited in the exercise of power: ruling by absolute authority . . . 3a: based on or determined by individual preference or convenience rather than by necessity or the intrinsic nature of something . . . ."). The Commonwealth's action in this case was clearly arbitrary: it usurped the role of the tribunal assigned, in our system of separated powers, to determine whether the stay should be lifted. Moreover, in addition to violating an existing court order, the trial prosecutor's unauthorized conduct ultimately created the basis for the Commonwealth to newly certify appellant as death-eligible, and to convert what had been a non-capital prosecution into a capital one. By taking an unlawful action which led to the creation of an aggravating circumstance that did not exist when the court had ruled on extradition, the Commonwealth introduced an element of arbitrariness into the death-eligibility process. In such a circumstance, we are
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