Opinion ID: 1906630
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Failure to Challenge Search Warrants

Text: Appellant claims PCRA counsel was ineffective for failing to raise all previous counsels' ineffectiveness for failing to assert the police officer's alleged perjury in connection with the probable cause affidavits used to obtain the search warrant for Appellant's blood-stained shoes. Appellant claims that, because the police searched his room on July 27, 1981, and did not discover his blood-covered shoes during that search, the officers who applied for a subsequent search warrant on August 13, 1981, fabricated claims that they observed blood stains on the shoes discovered under Appellant's bed. The record does not support Appellant's claim of perjury. The July 27, 1981 search warrant authorized the officers to search for bloody clothing, weapons, any evidence of homosexual assault or physical attacks; any eyeglasses; 10-speed bicycle; any other evidence of criminal homicide. Based on this warrant, the officers seized some materials, including a piece of paper noting an appointment with Dr. Perry, Appellant's treating optometrist. Subsequently, on August 11, 1981, James Lynch, a witness who encountered Appellant the night of the murder, informed the police that he had seen Appellant wearing what he believed were brown sandals. The police obtained an additional search warrant of Appellant's room from that statement, to look specifically for a pair of sandals. During the execution of that search warrant, Officer Riffland searched under Appellant's bed and discovered a brown pair of shoes. When examining the shoes, the officer detected dried blood stains. The information gained from this search for the sandals served as the basis for the search warrant used to obtain the shoes containing stains of the victim's blood. We do not find the failure of the police to discover these shoes during the July 27, 1981 search as indicative of any deliberate false statements in the August 13, 1981 search warrant affidavits, and Appellant offers no substantive support from the record to give any merit to these accusations. We will not find counsel ineffective for failing to pursue a claim that has no merit.