Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Jury Instruction Regarding a Permissible Inference[20]

Text: Appellant claims that the trial court gave an improper permissible inference instruction related to the doctrine of transferred intent when it allowed the jury to infer appellant's specific intent to kill William Lloyd from the use of a deadly weapon on a vital organ; thereby, allegedly relieving the Commonwealth from its burden of proof to establish intent. The wounds on the victim's body, appellant maintains, are irrelevant to the determination of whether appellant had the specific intent to kill someone else. Appellant argues that it is only rational to infer a specific intent to kill when the victim is the person that the defendant intended to shoot. Lastly, appellant contends his trial counsel was ineffective when he did not object to the instruction and, thereafter, appellate counsel was ineffective for not raising trial counsel's ineffectiveness on direct appeal. The Commonwealth asserts that appellant's claim was previously litigated, since he challenged the appropriateness of the transferred intent charge, albeit on alternate theories of relief, on direct appeal. The PCRA court accepted this argument below, but we will review appellant's claim within the context of the layered ineffective assistance claim he presents to us, a claim which he did not raise on direct appeal. See Collins, 888 A.2d at 573. A permissive inference is an evidentiary tool that permits a fact-finder to proceed on inferential reasoning, such that a fact-finder may infer an elemental fact from proof of a basic fact. Commonwealth v. MacPherson, 561 Pa. 571, 752 A.2d 384, 389 (2000). When a permissive inference leaves the fact-finder free to accept or reject the inference, a permissive inference does not affect the burden of proof and it only affects the beyond a reasonable doubt standard when, under the facts of the case, there is no way the fact-finder could arrive at the conclusion permitted by the inference. County Court of Ulster County, N.Y. v. Allen, 442 U.S. 140, 157, 99 S.Ct. 2213, 2225, 60 L.Ed.2d 777 (1979); see also Commonwealth v. Hall, 574 Pa. 233, 830 A.2d 537, 547-48 (2003). We have opined that a [s]pecific intent to kill can be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon upon a vital part of the victim's body. Commonwealth v. Damon Jones, 530 Pa. 591, 610 A.2d 931, 938 (1992). Here, the trial court instructed the jury that, if it found that appellant used a deadly weapon on a vital part of the victim's body, it was free, but not required, to infer that appellant had a specific intent to kill. The evidence presented at trial permitted this inference because the Commonwealth presented testimony that appellant shot at Mr. Burton shortly before William Lloyd was killed. Consequently, the trial court did not erroneously shift the burden of proof for specific intent away from the Commonwealth. Furthermore, it bears noting that appellant's theory is novel (and indeed unsupported by existing authority). Counsel cannot be faulted for failing to advance novel (and as yet unaccepted) theories.