THE COURTS
[234 PA. CODE CH. 5]
Proposed Amendments to Pa.R.Crim.P. 513
[37 Pa.B. 4178]
[Saturday, August 4, 2007]The Criminal Procedural Rules Committee is planning to recommend that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania amend Rule 513 to provide for the temporary delay in the dissemination of arrest warrant information to the public prior to execution of the warrant. This proposal has not been submitted for review by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
The following explanatory Report highlights the Committee's considerations in formulating this proposal. Please note that the Committee's Report should not be confused with the official Committee Comments to the rules. Also note that the Supreme Court does not adopt the Committee's Comments or the contents of the explanatory Reports.
The text of the proposed amendments to Rule 513 precedes the Report. Additions are shown in bold; deletions are in bold and brackets.
We request that interested persons submit suggestions, comments, or objections concerning this proposal in writing to the Committee through counsel,
Anne T. Panfil, Chief Staff Counsel
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Criminal Procedural Rules Committee
5035 Ritter Road, Suite 100
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
fax: (717) 795-2106
e-mail: criminal.rules@pacourts.usno later than Monday, September 3, 2007.
By the Criminal Procedural Rules Committee
NICHOLAS J. NASTASI,
Chair
Annex A
TITLE 234. RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
CHAPTER 5. PRETRIAL PROCEDURES IN
COURT CASES
PART B(3). Arrest Procedures in Court Cases
(a) Arrest Warrants Rule 513. Requirements for Issuance.
* * * * * (E) Dissemination of Arrest Warrant Information.
(1) When an arrest warrant is issued following the filing of a complaint, at the request of the affiant or the attorney for the Commonwealth, the criminal complaint, the arrest warrant, and any affidavit(s) of probable cause shall not be made available by the issuing authority for public inspection or dissemination until the warrant has been executed.
(2) In those counties in which the attorney for the Commonwealth requires that complaints and arrest warrant affidavits be approved prior to filing as provided in Rule 507, only the attorney for the Commonwealth may request a delay in the public dissemination of the criminal complaint, the arrest warrant, and any affidavit(s) of probable cause.
Comment * * * * * Paragraph (E) was added in 2007 to address the potential dangers to law enforcement and the general public and the risk of flight when arrest warrant information is disseminated prematurely; that is prior to the execution of the arrest warrant. The paragraph provides that the affiant or the attorney for the Commonwealth may request the delay in dissemination of the criminal complaint, the arrest warrant, and any affidavit(s) of probable cause until execution and that, upon such request, the issuing authority must delay the dissemination. The provisions in the rule that any delay must be specifically requested by law enforcement and any delay is limited to pre-execution arrest warrants only reduce the impact of the delay in the disclosure of the arrest warrant information upon the right of public access to warrant information.
Official Note: Rule 119 adopted April 26, 1979, effective as to arrest warrants issued on or after July 1, 1979; Comment revised August 9, 1994, effective January 1, 1995; renumbered Rule 513 and amended March 1, 2000, effective April 1, 2001; amended May 10, 2002, effective September 1, 2002; amended , 2007, effective , 2007.
Committee Explanatory Reports:
* * * * * Report explaining the proposed amendments concerning dissemination of arrest warrant information published at 37 Pa.B. 4179 (August 4, 2007).
REPORT
Proposed Amendments to Pa.R.Crim.P. 513
Dissemination of Arrest Warrant Information Recently, the Committee has been presented with questions regarding the obligation of an issuing authority to disseminate arrest warrant information to the public prior to the execution of these warrants, a question, left unanswered in the case law, that has arisen a number of times over the years.
The primary concerns that have been raised with the Committee are that the premature disclosure of arrest warrant information has the potential for injury or loss of life to the executing officers in addition to the possibility of flight on the part of the defendant. These concerns have been heightened recently by the increased level of automation of court records that has resulted in the increased accessibility of this information at a much earlier stage in the criminal proceedings.
In Commonwealth v. Fenstermacher, 515 Pa. 501, 530 A.2d 414 (1987), in which a newspaper filed a motion for access to arrest warrant affidavits, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania noted that there were important policy considerations which underlay a general right to public access to court records, such as discouraging perjury, enhancing police and prosecutorial performance, and promoting a public perception of fairness in the arrest warrant process. However, the Court found that the public's right to inspect judicial documents is not absolute and the decision regarding public access to arrest warrant affidavits is best left to the discretion of the court. Nonetheless, the remedy the Court supported was to require that affidavits be sealed under a court order, not simply upon the request of one of the parties. It is important to note that the Court in Fenstermacher specifically stated that they were not addressing the question of access to pre-executed warrant affidavits.
In view of the concerns raised with the Committee, the Committee concluded that unlimited disclosure of arrest warrant information prior to the execution of the warrant poses a serious threat to the safety and welfare of the public and law enforcement. Based on the Supreme Court's ruling in Fenstermacher, the Committee agreed that reasonable limitations on pre-execution disclosure with appropriate safeguards would protect the public and law enforcement without unnecessarily infringing of the right of the public to access the information. We further concluded that these limitations should apply to both information that is disseminated electronically and information that is physically available for inspection at the issuing authority's office.
The Committee therefore is proposing an amendment to Rule 513 that would provide that an affiant or attorney for the Commonwealth may request that the issuing authority delay dissemination of arrest warrant information, in any form, to the public until the warrant is executed. The criminal complaint, the arrest warrant itself, the affidavit of probable cause and the existence of the warrant are included in this limitation. The safeguards included in new paragraph (E) of Rule 513 are that the delay is of limited duration, ministerial in nature and limited to individual cases specified by the affiant or attorney for the Commonwealth. In other words, whether to delay dissemination is determined on a case-by-case basis and must be specifically requested by the affiant or attorney for the Commonwealth. Furthermore, the delay may be requested only in those cases in which an arrest warrant is issued following the complaint; it may not be requested in cases in which a bench warrant has been issued or an arrest warrant has been issued subsequent to a summons. Additionally, the delay in dissemination will only last until the arrest warrant is executed. Finally, in those counties in which the attorney for the Commonwealth requires that complaints and arrest warrant affidavits be approved prior to filing as provided in Rule 507, only the attorney for the Commonwealth, and not the affiant, may request the delay.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 07-1390. Filed for public inspection August 3, 2007, 9:00 a.m.]
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