For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 32
Commonwealth v. Alston
- Good Decision or Bad
Decision for the Defense?
I
n August 2018, Calvin Alston was charged with
Criminal Homicide. He qualified for the services
of the Allegheny County Public Defender's Office
and his counsel, in anticipation of the preliminary
hearing, also began preparing for the trial that
inevitably would follow. In doing so, counsel
contacted the Medical Examiner's Office to find
out what he needed to do to obtain the victim's
autopsy report and all reports, documents, and
photographs associated with its investigation. The
Medical Examiner's Office responded that it simply
needed to be served with a subpoena duces tecum.
Counsel prepared and served the subpoena, and the
Medical Examiner's Office informally indicated its
intention to honor it.
However, four days before Mr. Alston's
preliminary hearing, the Allegheny County
District Attorney's Office filed a "motion to quash
subpoenas; motion for order of court pursuant to
Pa.R.Crim.P. 573(E)." Therein, the Commonwealth
requested that Mr. Alston's subpoena be quashed
because the information he sought from the
Medical Examiner's Office was irrelevant at the
preliminary hearing stage of a case, and, therefore,
Alston failed to meet his burden of demonstrating
a reasonable basis for issuing the subpoena.
Moreover, the Commonwealth made a sweeping
32
For The Defense l Vol. 5, Issue 3
Brandon Ging
request to prohibit the Public Defender's Office
from issuing subpoenas duces tecum to the
Medical Examiner's Office "in any criminal cases
absent a showing of reasonable[ness]" because
the Public Defender's Office was merely trying
to circumvent Pa.R.Crim.P. 573 (Pretrial Discovery
and Inspection). The Commonwealth argued,
"they are just asking for discovery materials that
the Office of Public Defender is provided by
the Commonwealth through discovery in every
single case. [And], "you're not investigating
our evidence, our materials, without giving us
opportunity to hand it over in discovery[.]" The
trial court granted the Commonwealth's motion
without a hearing. Mr. Alston's counsel filed a
motion to reconsider, but the trial court refused
to vacate its quashal order. Consequently, the
Public Defender's Office filed an interlocutory
appeal pursuant to Pa.R.A.P. 313 (Collateral
Orders).
On appeal, Mr. Alston raised several issues.
First, Alston argued the Commonwealth did not
have standing to quash a subpoena duces tecum
issued by the defense to an independent third
party where the third party was not an agent of
the prosecution. Second, because a subpoena
duces tecum is presumed valid in criminal cases,
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3
Contents
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 1
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 2
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - Contents
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 4
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 5
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 6
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 7
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 8
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 9
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 10
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 11
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 12
For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 13
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For the Defense - Vol. 5, Issue 3 - 58
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