Opinion ID: 1906630
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Failure to Impeach Commonwealth Witness

Text: The next claim of the Appellant is that previous counsel were ineffective in not raising trial counsel's ineffectiveness for failing to impeach one of the Commonwealth's witnesses, Linda Diane Walters, on the grounds that Ms. Walters allegedly was a known abuser of solvents. At trial, Ms. Walters testified that Appellant spent some time at her home for a few days following the murder. Ms. Walters testified that Appellant was watching television with her when the evening news was on, and that Appellant turned to her and asked her if the police could trace a suspect based on eyeglasses. Appellant fails to demonstrate that he suffered prejudice due to trial counsel's failure to impeach Ms. Walters on grounds of her alleged solvents abuse. [14] Whether the jury would have found such impeachment sufficient to discredit Ms. Walters' account of Appellant's incriminating question concerning the eyeglasses, and whether such discrediting of Ms. Walters' testimony would have given the jury reasonable doubt in light of the physical evidence of the victim's blood on Appellant's clothing and the discovery of Appellant's eyeglasses at the crime scene, is entirely too speculative an inquiry. Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel that are based on speculation and conjecture do not adequately establish the degree of prejudice necessary; namely, that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different. See Commonwealth v. Morris, 546 Pa. 296, 312, 684 A.2d 1037, 1045 (1996).