Opinion ID: 2069959
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Allegedly Inconsistent Defense Strategy

Text: Johnson avers that counsel was ineffective for presenting a defense that conceded his guilt. Johnson fails to realize, however, that his several statements to police in December of 1996 severely constrained the avenues of defense left viable for counsel to pursue. In these statements to police, Johnson conceded that he knew Bridges planned to murder Damon and Gregory and that he drove Bridges, Damon, and Gregory to the location of the murders. Trial counsel could not pretend that these statements did not exist, as the jury would consider them. The only credible defense for counsel to present was one in which Johnson admitted the above-recited participation. Counsel chose to submit that it was Bridges, not Johnson, whose girlfriend was the victim of the robbery and that Bridges, not Johnson, had a motive to kill Damon and Gregory. Counsel also argued that Bridges shot Johnson before shooting Damon or Gregory and that Johnson fled the scene immediately, before Bridges fired at Damon or Gregory. In this manner, counsel admitted that Johnson was present at the scene, but argued that Johnson was not an accomplice because he stopped facilitating commission of the crimes prior to Bridges' act of shooting Damon and Gregory. Additionally, counsel presented evidence that Bridges fled the county, while Johnson stayed and met with police, to mitigate the culpability of Johnson. While this strategy ultimately did not succeed, given the evidence against Johnson, it was nonetheless one of the very few arguments that counsel could have reasonably made to the jury. Accordingly, we find that counsel had a reasonable basis for conceding Johnson's presence at the scene and some degree of complicity and, thus, counsel was not ineffective in this regard. See Commonwealth v. Paolello, 542 Pa. 47, 665 A.2d 439, 454 (1995) (where the particular course chosen by counsel had some reasonable basis, our inquiry ceases and counsel's assistance is deemed effective).