Opinion ID: 2550075
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: constitutional challenges to the death penalty and pennsylvania's chosen method of execution-death by lethal injection

Text: Appellant next argues that the trial court erred by not finding the death penalty unconstitutional, claiming that our mandatory death penalty statute violates his right to a jury trial under Article I, Sections 6 and 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Appellant also asserts that this statute violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution as a violation of evolving standards of decency in a maturing society. Appellant's Brief at 63-64. This is the sum total of Appellant's entire argument contained in his brief to our Court. Rather than developing a coherent argument with respect to each of these claims, with proper citation to relevant case law supporting his argument as required by our appellate rules, Appellant simply attempts to incorporate by reference a brief authored by another attorney, Thomas Raup, [47] which Appellant appended to his motion in the trial court to have the death penalty declared unconstitutionala motion which the trial court denied. Appellant also attaches a copy of this brief as an appendix to his current brief filed with our Court. We have previously held that such incorporation by reference is an unacceptable manner of appellate advocacy for the proper presentation of a claim for relief to our Court. Commonwealth v. Edmiston, 535 Pa. 210, 238 n. 3, 634 A.2d 1078, 1092 n. 3 (1993) (specifying that all claims a litigant desires our court to consider are required to be set forth in the appellate brief and not just incorporated by reference); Pines v. Farrell, 577 Pa. 564, 570 n.3, 577 Pa. 564, 848 A.2d 94, 97 n. 3 (2004) (holding that reliance on the briefs and pleadings already filed in this case was not a recommended form of advocacy and noting that this Court is not obliged to root through the record and determine what arguments, if any, respondent forwarded below, nor are we obliged to fashion an argument on his behalf.). Our rules of appellate procedure specifically require a party to set forth in his or her brief, in relation to the points of his argument or arguments, discussion and citation of authorities as are deemed pertinent, as well as citations to statutes and opinions of appellate courts and the principle for which they are cited. Pa.R.A.P. 2119(a), (b). Therefore our appellate rules do not allow incorporation by reference of arguments contained in briefs filed with other tribunals, or briefs attached as appendices, as a substitute for the proper presentation of arguments in the body of the appellate brief. [48] Were we to countenance such incorporation by reference as an acceptable manner for a litigant to present an argument to an appellate court of this Commonwealth, this would enable wholesale circumvention of our appellate rules which set forth the fundamental requirements every appellate brief must meet. See, e.g., Pa.R.A.P. 2135(a)(1) (establishing length of principal brief at no greater than 70 pages); [49] Commonwealth v. (James) Lambert, 568 Pa. 346, 356 n. 4, 797 A.2d 232, 237 n. 4 (2001) (Opinion Announcing Judgment of the Court) (refusing to consider claims not argued in the brief but incorporated by reference from motions made at trial and observing that [t]o permit appellant to incorporate by reference his previous motions would effectively allow him to more than double the original briefing limit.). [50] The briefing requirements scrupulously delineated in our appellate rules are not mere trifling matters of stylistic preference; rather, they represent a studied determination by our Court and its rules committee of the most efficacious manner by which appellate review may be conducted so that a litigant's right to judicial review as guaranteed by Article V, Section 9 of our Commonwealth's Constitution may be properly exercised. Thus, we reiterate that compliance with these rules by appellate advocates who have any business before our Court is mandatory. Consequently, since Appellant has failed to develop or present a proper argument with respect to these constitutional claims, we find them waived in this direct appeal.
Appellant next argues that Pennsylvania's method of capital punishment, lethal injection, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Since the United States Supreme Court had not, at the time he filed his appeal, rendered its decision in Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35, 128 S.Ct. 1520, 170 L.Ed.2d 420 (2008), regarding whether Kentucky's three drug method of lethal injection violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, Appellant requested that his execution be stayed pending the high Court's decision. As the Supreme Court has rendered its decision in Baze, and held that Kentucky's chosen method of execution does not contravene the Eighth Amendment, Appellant's request for a stay is now moot. Appellant's substantive claim regarding whether Pennsylvania's particular manner of conducting an execution utilizing lethal injection via administration of a drug combination violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution is, as many of his other claims, waived for failure to develop it in any meaningful fashion to permit our appellate review.
Having addressed each of Appellant's claims of trial error, this Court is also obligated to conduct a statutory review of his death sentence. In accordance with Section 9711(h)(3) of the Judicial Code, this Court is required to affirm the sentence of death unless we determine: (i) the sentence of death was the product of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor; or (ii) the evidence fails to support the findings of at least one aggravating circumstance specified in subsection (d). 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(h)(3)(i), (ii). After a searching review of the entirety of the trial record below, we conclude that the unanimous sentence of death imposed by the jury was not the product of any passion, prejudice, or arbitrary factor considered by the jury but, rather, was supported by the trial evidence. Further, the trial evidence discussed above is sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt all of the aggravating factors found by the jury. Since the jury concluded that these aggravating circumstances outweighed the one mitigating circumstance they found, the jury was statutorily required to impose this sentence of death under 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(c)(1)(iv), and we are bound to affirm it. Since we are upholding Appellant's death sentence, the Prothonotary of this Court is directed to transmit to the Governor's office a full and complete record of the trial, sentencing hearing, imposition of sentence, and the opinion and order of our Court in accordance with 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711(i). Judgment of sentence affirmed. Jurisdiction relinquished. Chief Justice CASTILLE, Justices EAKIN, BAER, McCAFFERY and ORIE MELVIN join the opinion.