Opinion ID: 1888436
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the death sentence should be vacated because this court failed to provide meaningful proportionality review.

Text: Appellant claims that this Court in Fletcher I did not provide a meaningful or correct proportionality review to which he was entitled pursuant to now-repealed 42 Pa.C.S. ง 9711(h)(3)(iii). [61] Appellant's complaint rests upon an assertion that a proper proportionality review could not have occurred on account of errors and omissions in a database administered by the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC). [62] Appellant also claims that he was deprived of due process of law because he never received the materials stored by the AOPC and he was not provided an opportunity to be heard with respect to proportionality review. Appellant's Brief, 93. Finally, Appellant complains that direct appeal counsel was ineffective for not obtaining from the AOPC the materials utilized by this Court in conducting its proportionality review. Appellant's Brief, 93. The Commonwealth asks that we hold the claim meritless because it has been previously litigated. The Commonwealth also submits that Appellant is not entitled to relief because he waived his claims by failing to raise them in his PCRA petition. Finally, the Commonwealth notes that this Court has previously rejected claims identical to the one Appellant raises here. Commonwealth's Brief, 98. We agree that Appellant waived the issues he now presents because he did not raise them in his PCRA petition. [63] In his PCRA petition, Appellant claimed that the proportionality review this Court conducted on direct appeal was flawed because the Court allegedly did not consider cases in which life sentences were imposed. PCRA Petition, 239-240. Appellant did not raise a claim challenging the accuracy of the data compiled by the AOPC, a due process claim, or an ineffectiveness claim. Thus we hold that Appellant waived the claims he now presents on appeal. Pa.R.A.P. 302(a) (providing that issues not presented in the lower court are waived and cannot be presented for the first time on appeal).