The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to take a case involving the classification under state wiretap laws of conversations between inmates and visitors that occur over a telephone-like device in a correctional facility.
In a February decision, the Superior Court said recordings of those conversations can be used as evidence in a criminal case under the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act. The justices agreed to consider whether the Superior Court erred by reversing a trial court’s suppression order “based upon its own definition of ‘telephone calls’ and overstepping its standard of review by placing itself as a fact-finder, instead of accepting the findings of fact espoused by the trial court,” according to an Aug. 7 per curiam order in Commonwealth v. Fant.
