The proper remedy for a violation of Commonwealth v. McClelland is a discharge, not remand. The defendant, the Commonwealth, and the trial court agreed the magisterial district court and trial court violated McClelland when those courts relied exclusively on hearsay evidence at the preliminary hearing and habeas corpus hearing. In this interlocutory appeal, the Pennsylvania Superior Court was tasked with determining the appropriate remedy for a writ of habeas corpus. The Commonwealth argued that the Court should remand for a supplemental habeas corpus hearing. The Court disagreed and discharged the defendant, thereby affirming “the principles of justice dating back to Magna Carta, the corresponding common law of habeas corpus relief, and the ancient line of unbroken precedents applying them.”
