Opinion ID: 3166632
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Admission of Racial Epithets

Text: In his next issue, Appellant contends that reversible taint in both the guilt and penalty phase resulted from the trial court’s erroneous evidentiary ruling, over defense objection, permitting the jury to hear excerpts of Appellant’s 911 call in which he uttered racial epithets that were irrelevant and highly prejudicial. In his 911 call Appellant used the slur “nigger” several times. At trial, the court granted defense counsel’s request that the jury hear the entire forty-one minute recording of the 911 call made by Appellant. N.T. at 524. From that recording, several excerpts were made exhibits and entered into evidence, as well. The first 911 call excerpt accompanied the testimony of dispatcher Kathleen Cornell and offered the following from Appellant: APPELLANT: I’m done taking innocent police officers’ lives. So, if someone can come and get me, that would be great. DISPATCHER: Do you have any weapons on you? APPELLANT: I got plenty of weapons on me, but I’m not shooting any more cops because my weapons are out of ammunition and disabled. DISPATCHER: You’re out of ammunition? APPELLANT: Almost, but I promise you that I’m not going to shoot any more fucking police officers. [J-25-2014] - 21 N.T. at 496-97; see also N.T. at 1501; Commonwealth Exhibit 93.10 Also played as Exhibit 94 were remarks accompanying the testimony of 911 Call Center shift commander Robert Sabo: APPELLANT: Richard Poplawski. I’m inside 1016 Fairfield Street. Okay. I don’t want to end any more innocent officer’s [sic] lives in the line of duty. Okay. Okay. [A]nd unless you want to send somebody in here. I’m shot. (inaudible) And you know, I’m going to go to jail and fight the niggers for the rest of my life.” Send somebody with a nice voice into the fucking living room, which is the main room with the big window, and I’ll explain to them we’re basically done for the--. N.T. 507; Commonwealth Exhibit 93A, “side B,” at 12:41. The third excerpt was admitted as Exhibit 95 and contained surrender negotiations between Sergeant Campbell and Appellant, in which Appellant said, inter alia, it “ain’t no bullshit about what happened and I will have to bite the niggers’ dicks off and fight for the rest of my life.” Commonwealth Exhibit 93A, “side B,” at 18:15. Prior to playing the entire recording and admitting these excerpts, the trial court issued the following cautionary instruction: THE COURT: For the record, ladies and gentleman, this is -- before you put the headsets on, this is another one of these supplemental instructions. Keeping in mind that you are to be the judges of the facts and be fair and dispassionate and impartial in all matters. You will hear statements attributed to the defendant in this tape-recording that contain racial epithets. These are gratuitous comments made in the context of the conversation and the events occurring at the time. Because they are 10 Exhibits 93, 94, and 95 represented segments taken from one entire recording, which was admitted separately as Exhibit 93A, “side B.” Redacted from the recording played during Cornell’s testimony was Appellant’s statement “I’m going to go to jail and fight niggers for the rest of my life.” This statement did, however, appear on Commonwealth Exhibit 93A, side “B” at approximately the 12-minute mark during Cornell’s call, and a second statement to that effect was included in the playback of dispatcher Robert Sabo’s call at Exhibit 94, as indicated infra. [J-25-2014] - 22 prejudicial racial comments, you must not allow them to stir up your emotions to the prejudice of the defendant. You must not regard this evidence as showing that the defendant is a person of bad character from which you might be inclined to infer that he’s guilty of any of the crimes charged here. If you ultimately find the defendant guilty of any offense, it must be based upon evidence of proof by the Commonwealth beyond a reasonable doubt and not on the basis of any offensive language from which you might infer a racist attitude. You may proceed. N.T. at 496. Appellant argues that the racist comments were irrelevant to proving the case of first-degree murder and, accordingly, lacked any probative value to offset their highly prejudicial effect. As such, their exclusion was required under then-effective former Rules 401 and 403 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence, he submits.11 In this vein, Appellant notes that the trial court initially sustained his relevance-based objections to the epithets but changed its ruling and deemed them admissible--despite maintaining they were of questionable relevance--for their contextual value. Specifically, the trial court advised why it was changing its ruling: THE COURT: The problem is not that it is relevant. Clearly I would agree with you that there is a very difficult issue as to whether it’s relevant or not. But the problem is it appears to be contextual, meaning it’s there in 11 At the time the trial court made its evidentiary rulings, this Commonwealth defined relevant evidence as that “having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Former Pa.R.E. 401, rescinded and replaced Jan. 17, 2013, effective March 18, 2013. Under former Rule 403 in effect at the time of trial, relevant evidence was subject to exclusion “if its probative value [was] outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.” Former Pa.R.E. 403, rescinded and replaced Jan. 17, 2013, effective March 18, 2013. [J-25-2014] - 23 virtually everything that’s going on and being said. But there are several cautionary instructions, one dealing with inflammatory photographs, one dealing with evidence of other crimes which have melded together, and I’ve got about a paragraph and a half here that I can tell them essentially that they are not to regard the evidence asP[court’s comment ends without explanation]. N.T. at 360. Appellant dismisses this reasoning also as having no support in former Rule 401, which predicated the admissibility of evidence on relevance to a material fact. Appellant continues that whatever contextual role the epithets could have theoretically played in assisting the jury in rendering a verdict was all but negated by admission of his written confession as well as by the substantive 911 statements reflecting his consciousness of guilt. Indeed, redaction of the quintessentially inflammatory slur “nigger” would have sacrificed nothing of value from the otherwise incriminating telephonic evidence, he contends. The court’s error was, furthermore, not harmless, Appellant continues, as the profound prejudice associated with revealing Appellant to be a racist can hardly have been rendered comparatively insignificant by the properly admitted evidence of his guilt. This was particularly so in the penalty phase, Appellant contends, where the prosecutor relied on a theme of Appellant as a “hater” who acted on his hate with devastating consequences and may very well do so again if allowed to live out his life in jail. The jury was, therefore, invited to punish Appellant for his belief system as well as for his actions, Appellant’s argument goes. The Commonwealth counters that the epithets were integral to the cohesiveness of Appellant’s statement, and that their excision would have left the jury with the difficult task of piecing together broken language segments offered in an inculpatory statement that stood as crucial proof of first-degree murder. It is in that way the regrettable [J-25-2014] - 24 remarks were of vital contextual importance, it maintains. “The issue is whether these highly germane admissions, [such as ’I’ll have to fight for my life for the rest of my life’] could have reasonably been divorced from the word ‘nigger’ in such a way as to preserve their relevance and evidentiary integrity[,]” the Commonwealth posits. Brief for Appellee at 32. In a case involving multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, and other egregious offenses, it was imperative for the court to admit the “exact words” in which Appellant acknowledged he took the lives of “innocent police officers” and should lose his freedom for life, the argument continues. All the words together, therefore, demonstrated the malevolence and intent behind these unprovoked crimes, the Commonwealth insists. In furtherance of its position, the Commonwealth cites to extra-jurisdictional authority for the proposition that racial epithets should avoid redaction where they are important to the finder of fact’s understanding of the material conversations in which they were made. In U.S. v. Price, 13 F.3d 711 (3d Cir. 1994), the Commonwealth reports, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed a drug distribution conspiracy case in which the trial court denied a defense request to delete from tape recordings of the defendant his references to rival gang members as “niggers.” The circuit court agreed that it would have been “virtually impossible” to redact this term without altering the substance of the conversation regarding the drug conspiracy, and so upheld the decision to admit the evidence. Id. at 720-21. For its part, the trial court discusses neither the relevance of the epithets nor their relative probity as compared to potential for prejudice. Instead, it confines its opinion to say that Appellant offers nothing to rebut the presumption that juries follow cautionary [J-25-2014] - 25 instructions, and that, at the worst, any error in the evidentiary ruling was harmless given the overwhelming evidence of Appellant’s guilt in this brutal crime: “[t]he suggestion that because the jury heard the defendant utter racial epithets their [sic] ability to render a fair verdict was impaired is absurd.” Trial Court Opinion, dated November 5, 2012, at 33. The admissibility of evidence is a matter for the discretion of the trial court and a ruling thereon will be reversed on appeal only upon a showing that the trial court committed an abuse of discretion. Commonwealth v. Sherwood, 982 A.2d 483, 495 (Pa. 2009). “An abuse of discretion may not be found merely because an appellate court might have reached a different conclusion, but requires a result of manifest unreasonableness, or partiality, prejudice, bias, or ill-will, or such lack of support so as to be clearly erroneous.” Id. (quoting Commonwealth v. Dillon, 925 A.2d 131, 136 (Pa. 2007) (citation omitted)). In the event of an erroneous admission of evidence, a verdict can still be sustained if the error was harmless. See Commonwealth v. Wright, 961 A.2d 119, 144 (Pa. 2008). An error is harmless if it could not have contributed to the verdict, or stated conversely, an error cannot be harmless if there is a reasonable possibility the error might have contributed to the conviction. Id. We have found harmless error where: “(1) the error did not prejudice the defendant or the prejudice was de minimis; (2) the erroneously admitted evidence was merely cumulative of other untainted evidence which was substantially similar to the erroneously admitted evidence; or (3) the properly admitted and uncontradicted evidence of guilt was so overwhelming and the prejudicial effect of the error was so insignificant by comparison that the error could not have contributed to the verdict.” [J-25-2014] - 26 Id. (quoting Commonwealth v. Young, 748 A.2d 166, 193 (Pa. 1999) (citation omitted)). The Commonwealth has the burden of proving harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 143. Here, any error in including the epithets in the otherwise highly relevant and probative 911 call recording of Appellant’s statements was insignificant compared to properly admitted evidence overwhelmingly establishing that Appellant intentionally and fatally shot three police officers without provocation. He prepared for their arrival by donning body armor and arming himself with several firearms, struck down the first officer, Officer Sciullo, at the front entrance while the officer’s gun was still in its holster, and overtook Officers Mayhle and Kelly with multiple weapons. He continued to spray gunfire at anyone who moved outside the home and prevented attempts to render aid to Officer Kelly, who lay dying on the front sidewalk. As this brutal exhibition played out at his home, Appellant telephonically admitted more than once in clearly stated fashion that he killed “innocent police officers” during the episode and was prepared to go to prison for the rest of his life for having done so. Nearly 24 hours later, he volunteered a written admission to the same effect in a constitutionally sound custodial interrogation. Neither identity nor the specific intent to kill was ever seriously challenged at trial. This was not a close case. See Wright, supra at 144. The jury, therefore, heard such overwhelming evidence of both guilt on which to base its verdict and aggravating circumstances on which to base its sentence that not even this all-too-familiar epithet with the potential to incite passion among reasonable people could have factored in its guilt or penalty phase deliberations. Juries are presumed to follow instructions, Commonwealth v. Freeman, 827 A.2d 385, 409 (Pa. [J-25-2014] - 27 2003); Commonwealth v. Carter, 643 A.2d 61, 77 (Pa. 1994) (trial court instruction to jury not to consider prosecutor’s statements as evidence cured any prejudice which may have been caused by comments), and the court specifically advised jurors they were not to draw an adverse character inference from the two references. Thus, we conclude that any error attending the inclusion of Appellant’s use of epithets in an otherwise highly relevant statement was harmless.