Title: Commonwealth v. Philisten (Concurring Opinion)

State: pennsylvania

Issuer: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Document:

[J-28-2001] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA EASTERN DISTRICT COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellee v. BORGELA PHILISTIN a/k/a BORTELA PHILISTIN, Appellant : : : : : : : : : : : : No. 252 Capital Appeal Docket Appeal from the judgment of sentence of death entered on November 23, 1998 in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Trial Division, Criminal Section, at No. 969 July Term 1993 ARGUED: January 30, 2001 CONCURRING OPINION MR. JUSTICE NIGRO DECIDED: July 16, 2001 I agree with the majority that Appellant’s Batson claim lacks merit, especially in light of the fact that the jury in Appellant's case consisted of seven black persons and five white persons. See Commonwealth v. Clark, 710 A.2d 31, 44 (Pa. 1998)(Nigro, J., concurring)(“[S]imple common sense dictates that we give the empanelling of a racially and gender balanced jury, and certainly one consisting of a majority of members of the racial or gender group alleged to have been purposefully excluded, substantial weight when determining whether an appellant's Batson claim has merit.”) If the issue had been properly raised as an ineffectiveness claim, however, I would agree with Appellant to the extent that some type of documentation indicating the racial composition of the venirepersons should be available for appellate counsel’s review.1 Without access to 1 Appellant argues only that jury questionnaires must be preserved for purposes of making a Batson claim on appeal. In my view, however, the type of documentation that is available to (continued…) this information, appellate counsel would have great difficulty in presenting a cognizable claim that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to raise a Batson challenge. See Clark, 710 A.2d 31, 41 (Pa. 1993)(finding that trial counsel was not ineffective where the record did not establish a prima facie Batson claim.) ______________________ (…continued) appellate counsel is irrelevant, so long as it can be used to determine the racial composition of the venirepersons.