Commonwealth ex rel. Riggins v. Superintendent of Philadelphia Prisons

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Bell,

This case involves the challenged right of the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia to assign specially a Judge of the Trial Division of that Court to sit as a committing magistrate on the rearrest of a juvenile charged with murder and related crimes.

■ Louis Riggins, at the age of seventeen, was charged with murder and given a preliminary hearing on De*163oemher 17, 1968, before Judge Montemtjro of the then Juvenile Court Division of the Philadelphia County Court. Judge Montemtjro discharged Riggins, ruling that a prima facie case had not…