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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 310-1 Filed 07/02/21 Page 75 of 80
enforcement of the non-prosecution agreement with the police. This Court found that the
non-prosecution agreement was invalid, because the police did not have the authority to
make it. Only a prosecutor holds that power. /d.
We recognized that what befell the Stipetiches may have been “fundamentally
unfair,” particularly if their discussions with the police produced additional evidence of
criminality, including possibly self-incriminating statements. /d. at 1296. In dicta, we
suggested that the remedy might be to suppress the evidence or statements that were
obtained after the police purported to bind the Commonwealth in a non-prosecution
agreement. /d.
This remedy is insufficient here, for a number of reasons. First, as noted, the
remedy statement was dicta, and is not the law in Pennsylvania. Second, the
circumstances that led to the suggestion of that remedy are markedly different than those
that occurred in the present case. In Stipetich, the agreement was formulated with
arresting officers, who lacked the authority to make the promise not to prosecute. Here,
conversely, the non-prosecution decision was made by the elected District Attorney of
Montgomery County, whose public announcement of that decision was fully within his
authority, and was objectively worthy of reasonable reliance. Finally, a one-size-fits-all
remedy does not comport with the individualized due process inquiry that must be
undertaken. As outlined above, a court must ascertain, contemplating the individual
circumstances of each case, the remedy that accords with the due process of law. In
some instances, suppression of evidence may be an adequate remedy; in others, only
specific enforcement will suffice.
Here, only full enforcement of the decision not to prosecute can satisfy the
fundamental demands of due process. See Rowe, 676 F.2d at 528 (explaining that, when
a promise induces a defendant to waive his Fifth Amendment rights by testifying or
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