Commonwealth v. Williams

SPAETH, President Judge,

concurring:

Although I agree with the result reached by the majority, and with much of its opinion, my reasoning is somewhat different.

The common law doctrine of merger was developed before and independently of double jeopardy principles. The Fifth Amendment double jeopardy provision was first applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969). The equivalent Pennsylvania provision did not apply to non-capital offenses. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Baker, 413 Pa. 105, 196 A.2d 382 (1964);…