Opinion ID: 2343208
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: cross-appeal of the commonwealth

Text: We now turn to the cross-appeal filed by the Commonwealth. It claims that the PCRA court erred where it: (1) granted an evidentiary hearing; and (2) found that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate available information that would have produced evidence to support the [following] statutory mitigating circumstances: (a) the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(3); and (b) other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of the defendant and the circumstances of his offense, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(8). Commonwealth v. Jones, No. 0172 E.D. 2003, at 25 (C.P. Pa. Philadelphia July 31, 2003) (hereinafter PCRA ct. Op.).