Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Juvenile Convictions Used to Support Aggravating Circumstance[36]

Text: Appellant next claims his prior counsel were ineffective in failing to object to the admission of his prior juvenile adjudications to prove the aggravating circumstance that he had a significant history of violent felony convictions under 42 Pa.C.S.  9711(d)(9), particularly when he had no adult convictions involving the use of violence. While acknowledging that Commonwealth v. Baker, 531 Pa. 541, 614 A.2d 663, 675-76 (1992), held that juvenile adjudications could support this aggravating circumstance, appellant submits that the use of the adjudications in his case violates the Ex Post Facto Clause; the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution; and Article 1, Sections 9 and 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Appellant argues that the use of juvenile adjudications to support the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance is unconstitutionally vague, pursuant to the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause, because: (1) the Juvenile Act, 42 Pa.C.S.  6354(a), states that an adjudication of delinquency is not a conviction of a crime; (2) the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance relates to a significant history of felony convictions; (3) the pre-1996 amended Juvenile Act, 42 Pa.C.S.  6354(b), did not permit juvenile adjudications to be used in any court proceeding; and (4) the decision in Commonwealth v. Holcomb, 508 Pa. 425, 498 A.2d 833 (1985) (plurality), upheld Pennsylvania's death penalty statute, in part, because juvenile adjudications were not used as evidence to support the (d)(9) aggravator. With regard to appellant's ex post facto argument, he claims that he did not have the fair warning required by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and Article 1, Sections 9 and 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, that a juvenile adjudication could be used to aggravate a murder conviction at the time he was adjudicated delinquent in 1986 and 1987. Finally, he asserts that the expansion of the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance is arbitrary, unreasonable, and unprincipled, which violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of heightened procedural safeguards in capital sentencing. The Commonwealth argues that appellant's claim is previously litigated, since he challenged the applicability of the aggravator on direct appeal. The PCRA court noted that appellant now offers a different argument with respect to the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance, but nevertheless declared appellant's claim was previously litigated. [37] On direct appeal, appellant argued that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to argue the sufficiency of the evidence used to support the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance. Carson I, 741 A.2d at 706-707. Appellant's instant ineffectiveness arguments are obviously distinct from those he advanced on direct review, and thus, we will review them. See Collins, 888 A.2d at 573. We begin by noting that an error in submitting an aggravating circumstance is harmless where the jury finds multiple aggravators and no mitigators. Commonwealth v. Lester, 554 Pa. 644, 722 A.2d 997, 1006 n. 15 (1998). In any event, appellant has failed to acknowledge that this Court has repeatedly rejected the argument that the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance is unconstitutionally vague. In Miller, 746 A.2d at 604, this Court noted that this argument was previously rejected and declined to revisit the issue. See also Commonwealth v. Williams, 557 Pa. 207, 732 A.2d 1167, 1185 (1999); Commonwealth v. Hill, 542 Pa. 291, 666 A.2d 642, 654 (1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1235, 116 S.Ct. 1880, 135 L.Ed.2d 175 (1996); Commonwealth v. Fahy, 512 Pa. 298, 516 A.2d 689, 697-98 (1986); Commonwealth v. Beasley, 504 Pa. 485, 475 A.2d 730, 737 (1984). Moreover, appellant's approach to settled precedent is novel. Trial counsel was not obliged to challenge settled precedent with this new theory. The Ex Post Facto Clause prohibits Congress and the states from passing laws which impose punishment for an act that was not punishable at the time it was committed or imposes additional punishment than was previously prescribed. Cimaszewski v. Board of Prob. & Parole, 582 Pa. 27, 868 A.2d 416, 422 (2005) (plurality on other grounds) (quoting Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 28, 101 S.Ct. 960, 964, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981)). An ex post facto law, in other words, applies to events that occur before it was enacted and burden the offender. Cimaszewski, 868 A.2d at 423. In Gryger v. Burke, 334 U.S. 728, 68 S.Ct. 1256, 92 L.Ed. 1683 (1948), the United States Supreme Court evaluated the Pennsylvania Habitual Criminal Act in respect to a defendant who was sentenced as a fourth offender, even though one of the defendant's convictions arose before the Act was passed. The Court held that the defendant's categorization as a fourth offender did not impose an additional penalty for earlier crimes, but rather enhanced a penalty for the latest crime. Id. at 732, 68 S.Ct. at 1258. Here, the jury found the (d)(9) aggravator based on appellant's adjudications for crimes that were not considered in capital sentencing deliberations at the time he committed those crimes. For purposes of assessing counsel's effectiveness, the Gryger case is significantly analogous as to warrant the conclusion that appellant's novel theory would fail. Appellant's final challenge to the (d)(9) aggravating circumstance is a broad, unspecific claim that this Court has expanded the application of the aggravator in an arbitrary manner in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Since appellant fails to couple this claim with particular explanation as to why the use of his juvenile adjudications represents an arbitrary expansion of the aggravator, excluding his unsuccessful arguments above, and does not explain why he believes counsel was obliged to forward this claim, we reject this argument as well.