Opinion ID: 2422962
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction over guilt stage claims

Text: Before turning to the specific claims on which the PCRA court ruled, the Commonwealth raises a controlling preliminary question regarding whether the PCRA court erred in entertaining any of Lesko's claims related to his 1981 conviction (the guilt phase claims) because those claims are time-barred. In his PCRA petition, Lesko asserted a number of claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel related to the guilt phase of his 1981 trial. The PCRA court awarded Lesko a new guilt phase on its finding that trial counsel interfered with Lesko's right to testify at trial. The PCRA court also found that Lesko was entitled to a new trial based on his Brady [4] claims and derivative trial counsel ineffectiveness claims related thereto, which will be discussed separately. Specifically, the PCRA court determined that the Commonwealth's failure to produce relevant impeachment evidence cumulatively prejudiced Lesko, and that Lesko's counsel was ineffective for failing to obtain certain impeachment evidence and impeach certain witnesses. The Commonwealth contends that the PCRA court erred in addressing these claims because they were untimely. [5] According to the Commonwealth, under the time requirements of the PCRA, Lesko had to raise any claims relating to his original trial by January 16, 1997, the date on or before which a first PCRA petition would be deemed timely in a case, like the one sub judice, where the judgment of sentence became final before the effective date of the 1995 amendments to the PCRA. As Lesko first raised the claims in February 1999, the Commonwealth argues that the claims are time-barred and the PCRA court did not have jurisdiction to entertain them. The Commonwealth further asserts that Lesko failed to plead or prove any of the exceptions to the PCRA's time requirements, and that Lesko's efforts to couch his claims in terms of ineffectiveness of counsel cannot save his otherwise untimely petition. Lesko, in contrast, maintains that his 1999 PCRA petition was, in fact, timely, and, therefore, that the PCRA court had jurisdiction to consider the guilt phase ineffectiveness claims raised therein. He points out that his second death penalty sentence, imposed in 1995, did not become final until January 19, 1999, after the Supreme Court of the United States denied his petition for certiorari. Thus, Lesko argues that his PCRA petition, filed February 10, 1999, was filed within one year of the date his judgment of sentence became final. Lesko further suggests that the only issue implicating the PCRA court's ability to review his claims of guilt phase ineffective assistance of counsel is whether his claims were waived because they were not raised in a prior PCRA petition. On the issue of waiver, Lesko contends, and the PCRA court agreed, that because Lesko was represented by trial counsel at all times prior to filing his 1999 PCRA petition, the 1999 petition represented his first opportunity to present claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and, therefore, the ineffectiveness claims were not waived. See Commonwealth v. Bennett, 593 Pa. 382, 930 A.2d 1264, 1274 (2007) (recognizing general rule that counsel cannot raise his own ineffectiveness); Commonwealth v. Hughes, 581 Pa. 274, 865 A.2d 761, 775 n. 7 (2004) (where appellant was represented by same counsel at trial and on direct appeal, PCRA proceeding is deemed first opportunity to challenge stewardship of prior counsel). The PCRA court reasoned that it had jurisdiction over the guilt phase ineffectiveness claims because the PCRA proceedings were the first time that an independent attorney had reviewed Lesko's case and, thus, presented the first opportunity Lesko had to challenge trial counsel's conduct during the guilt phase. The PCRA court also pointed out the well-established tenets that counsel generally is not permitted to raise his own ineffectiveness; PCRA review is the appropriate avenue to raise ineffectiveness claims for a defendant who was represented by the same counsel at trial and on direct appeal; and issues of ineffectiveness must be raised at the earliest stage of the proceedings at which the counsel whose effectiveness is being challenged no longer represents the defendant. [6] Accordingly, the court concluded that it had jurisdiction over the guilt phase claims. Having considered the competing arguments as well as the PCRA court's reasoning, we agree with the Commonwealth that Lesko is not entitled to PCRA review of his guilt phase claims to the extent he seeks to challenge anything but the Commonwealth's failure to disclose allegedly material evidence, because his petition is time-barred as to those claims; and because he has not argued or demonstrated any exceptions to the jurisdictional time requirements as set forth in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). We conclude that this result is commanded by the terms and purpose of the PCRA, by the terms and purpose of the federal habeas order which led to Lesko's resentencing proceeding, and by an appreciation of the very limited role played by the lower federal habeas courts in reviewing final state criminal judgments. The novel question presented here may be phrased as: when a federal habeas corpus court sitting in civil collateral review of a final Pennsylvania judgment directs coercive, limited relief in the form of ordering Pennsylvania authorities to offer a convicted capital defendant a new penalty hearing, but does not purport to affect the underlying conviction or final judgment in any other manner, does the federal order operate to reopen the untouched Pennsylvania judgment concerning the verdict of guilt to serial collateral attack in state court. Lesko believes he is entitled to a fourth round of review of his guilt phase as of right under the PCRA, as a consequence of the federal habeas order. Lesko's theory, which the PCRA court appears to have adopted, depends on his assertion that the 1981 judgment of sentence did not become final until the conclusion of this Court's direct review of his second penalty hearing, which followed the federal collateral proceedings. Such a theory rests, in part, upon a view that collateral federal proceedings are but another step in the appellate review process; but that view fails to consider the actual and much more limited nature of such proceedings and their effect on state court final judgments. The terms of the PCRA do not specifically address the scenario presented here. By enacting the PCRA, the Legislature has prescribed the route that all collateral review of criminal convictions and sentences in Pennsylvania must follow. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9542 (The action established in this subchapter shall be the sole means of obtaining collateral relief and encompasses all other common law and statutory remedies ..., including habeas corpus and coram nobis.). The PCRA is not a part of the direct criminal proceeding. See Pennsylvania v. Finley, 481 U.S. 551, 556-57, 107 S.Ct. 1990, 95 L.Ed.2d 539 (1987). The PCRA has a commensurately limited purpose as it provides only for an action by which persons convicted of crimes they did not commit and persons serving illegal sentences may obtain collateral relief. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9542. The types of claims deemed cognizable under the PCRA likewise are not limitless. Instead, the PCRA petitioner must plead and prove [t]hat the conviction or sentence resulted from one or more of the following [enumerated errors]..., including, inter alia, a violation of the United States or Pennsylvania Constitutions or ineffective assistance of counsel. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2). Furthermore, a petitioner does not have an absolute right to collateral review and is not afforded review of claims previously litigated or waived. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(3) & (a)(4); 42 Pa.C.S. § 9544(a) & (b); Commonwealth v. Basemore, 560 Pa. 258, 744 A.2d 717, 726 (2000). In addition to detailing the types of claims that are cognizable under the PCRA, the PCRA further limits collateral review by utilizing jurisdictional time limitations. These limits provide that a PCRA petition must be filed within one year of the date the judgment became final. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). Furthermore, any petition filed outside of the one-year jurisdictional time bar is unreviewable unless it meets certain listed exceptions and is filed within sixty days of the date the claim first could have been presented. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1)(i)-(iii) & (b)(2). The 1995 amendments to the Act, which adopted the time-bar, also provide that if the judgment of sentence became final before the January 16, 1996 effective date of the amendments, a PCRA petition will be considered timely if it is filed within one year of that date, or by January 16, 1997. But this grace period only applies to first post-conviction petitions filed as of right, not serial petitions. As this Court explained in Commonwealth v. Fahy, where the judgment becomes final on or before the [PCRA's 1995] amendments' effective date, a petition will be deemed timely if the petitioner's first petition is filed within one year of the effective date of the amendments. 558 Pa. 313, 737 A.2d 214, 218 (1999) (emphasis original). The Legislature, however, did not speak to whether there is a right to supplemental state collateral review following a federal habeas mandate, which results in a new penalty hearing. It could be argued that the PCRA's silence on this issue indicates that a defendant who receives a new sentencing proceeding as a result of a federal habeas order cannot invoke the PCRA even as to his new sentence. Therefore, the foundational question, properly framed, is whether the PCRA allows any new and additional collateral attack following a resentencing occasioned by a grant of federal habeas relief. The parties and the PCRA court assumed the answer to this statutory question was yes with limited reasoning. We agree, but not because the PCRA by its terms plainly requires such review. Instead, we find the answer in the fact that this Court has construed the PCRA broadly to encompass those types of claims that would have been available for review under common law habeas corpus principles, in order to effectuate the PCRA's explicit role as the repository for claims which would otherwise have been available under state habeas corpus. See Commonwealth v. Bennett, 930 A.2d at 1276-77 (Saylor, J., dissenting) (outlining history). The new sentencing proceeding and its result are the cause of the defendant's continuing restraint; and that proceeding is sufficiently distinct from the initial sentencing proceeding that collateral review of issues specific to the resentencing is consistent with the plain intent and purpose of the PCRA. But, the calculus is entirely different when the defendant seeks to invoke the new sentencing judgment as a basis to pursue, as of right, issues that do not arise from the resentencing proceeding. And, as explained below, the nature of federal habeas review, and the limited role played by the lower federal courts in reviewing final state criminal judgments, corroborates that a limited grant of federal habeas sentencing relief does not give rise to a right to full-blown serial PCRA review of a trial whose result (conviction) has long been final. In order to understand the role of the federal courts and the purpose of federal collateral review of state convictions, some background is in order. The U.S. Constitution does not mandate any federal habeas corpus review of a prisoner's confinement following a final state judgment of conviction: the availability and scope of the writ in that circumstance is Congress's prerogative, see, e.g., Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651, 662-63, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996), though the Court might step in if Congress failed to resolve the question. Lonchar v. Thomas, 517 U.S. 314, 116 S.Ct. 1293, 134 L.Ed.2d 440 (1996). The first Congress did not make the writ available to state prisoners; it was not until 1867 that Congress created a general power for collateral review; [a]nd it was not until well into [the 20th] century that [the U.S. Supreme] Court interpreted [the legislation] to allow a final judgment of conviction in a state court to be collaterally attacked on habeas. Felker, supra . The U.S. Supreme Court's expansion of the civil writ to permit inquiry into federal issues other than the jurisdiction of the state court is an even later development. See Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 112 S.Ct. 2482, 120 L.Ed.2d 225 (1992) (plurality opinion by Thomas, J., and concurring opinion by O'Connor, J., debate precise beginnings of expanded use of writ). [7] The Court's expansion of the writ authorized the lower federal courts to reexamine the merits of a state prisoner's federal claims, even if those claims had been fully and fairly litigated in state court, and without any deference to the state court's determination. See Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 73 S.Ct. 397, 97 L.Ed. 469 (1953). As a result, lower federal court judges were permitted to upset state court criminal judgments anytime they disagreed with the state court's resolution of a federal claim, effectively giving the lower federal courts control over the state courts' findings, including those of the highest court of a state, notwithstanding that state courts are coequal to the lower federal courts on questions of federal law. [8] A growing sensitivity to concerns of federalism and comity eventually led to a corrective adjustment of this federal habeas review scheme, and it was the U.S. Supreme Court itself that initiated those corrective measures, beginning in the 1970s. These retractions were policy-based limitations on the availability of the habeas remedy. That is, the Supreme Court established by case law various rules under which the habeas court would refrain from granting relief, even though it had the jurisdiction to do so. Scheidegger, supra, at 933 (discussing retractions); see Calderon v. Thompson, 523 U.S. 538, 554-55, 118 S.Ct. 1489, 140 L.Ed.2d 728 (1998) (given the profound societal costs that attend the exercise of habeas jurisdiction over state convictions, we have found it necessary to impose significant limits on the discretion of federal courts to grant habeas relief) (citations omitted) (listing examples of retractions). One of the key retractions was the nonretroactivity principle that derived from Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989) (plurality opinion). The Teague restriction, which has since been repeatedly embraced by the U.S. Supreme Court as a majority rule, e.g., Butler v. McKellar, 494 U.S. 407, 415, 110 S.Ct. 1212, 108 L.Ed.2d 347 (1990), generally prevents a federal court from granting habeas corpus relief to a state prisoner based on a rule announced after his conviction and sentence became final. Caspari v. Bohlen, 510 U.S. 383, 389, 114 S.Ct. 948, 127 L.Ed.2d 236 (1994). By preventing federal habeas courts from upsetting state court judgments that were correct under the federal constitutional rules in existence at the time of trial, the Teague rule restored a measure of respect for the sovereign state courts, and placed some limits on the lower federal court's power to overturn reasonable state court determinations of federal questions. The `new rule' principle... validates reasonable, good-faith interpretations of existing precedents made by state courts, ... and thus effectuates the States' interests in the finality of criminal convictions and fosters comity between federal and state courts. Gilmore v. Taylor, 508 U.S. 333, 340, 113 S.Ct. 2112, 124 L.Ed.2d 306 (1993). By the same token, the Teague rule recognized that habeas relief should be available only where the legitimate purpose of habeas review would be served, i.e., as an additional incentive for trial and appellate courts throughout the land to conduct their proceedings in a manner consistent with established constitutional standards. Saffle v. Parks, 494 U.S. 484, 488, 110 S.Ct. 1257, 108 L.Ed.2d 415 (1990), quoting Teague, 489 U.S. at 306, 109 S.Ct. 1060, quoting Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 262-63, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 22 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969) (Harlan, J., dissenting). In the wake of Teague and its progeny, the U.S. Congress went even farther in restoring respect for the sovereignty of the states in the realm of federal habeas review of state convictions. Thus, in 1996, Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which included a new and deferential federal habeas standard of review. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), federal habeas relief may be granted to a state prisoner only if the state court's review of a claim resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts.... Under AEDPA, the federal court is no longer free to grant a state prisoner habeas relief simply because the court disagrees with a state court determination of a federal question. Moreover, a state court judgment can be said to be unreasonable under federal constitutional law only when it is measured against settled precedent from the highest court in the land. In contrast to the substantive standards governing federal habeas review of state convictions, the nature of the habeas remedy has remained comparatively constant. In Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963) [9] , the U.S. Supreme Court, per Justice Brennan, addressed the habeas remedy, noting that when a federal court determines that the right of personal liberty has been denied by the state and a person confined as a result, the federal court has the power to release him ... it has no other power; it cannot revise the state court judgment; it can act only on the body of the petitioner. Id. at 430-31, 83 S.Ct. 822 (emphasis added). Indeed, federal habeas corpus proceedings are civil in nature because they exist for the enforcement of a right to personal liberty, rather than as a stage of the state criminal proceedings or as an appeal therefrom.... Id. at 423-24, 83 S.Ct. 822. [10] Thus, a proper grant of federal habeas relief to a state prisoner does not purport to revise or interfere with the state court's criminal judgment. Fay, supra ; Henderson v. Frank, 155 F.3d 159, 168 (3d Cir.1998). Indeed, any attempt to so interfere is patent error. See, e.g., Dickerson v. Vaughn, 90 F.3d 87, 92 (3d Cir.1996) (district court should not directly order state court to grant defendant an appeal); Smith v. Lucas, 9 F.3d 359, 367 (5th Cir. 1993) (district court's directive to Mississippi state courts to impose sentence of life imprisonment did not comply with federal law); Duhamel v. Collins, 955 F.2d 962, 968 (5th Cir.1992) (federal court does not have authority to commute death sentence to sentence of life imprisonment); Magwood v. Smith, 791 F.2d 1438, 1450 (11th Cir.1986) (federal district court and court of appeals have no appellate authority over state court and, hence, have no authority to remand case to state court). Instead, federal habeas directives to state authorities are designed to be coercive. Thus, the federal courts issue a conditional grant of the writ, which delays implementing the writ, i.e., the release of the prisoner, to allow the state the opportunity to correct the perceived constitutional violation. Henderson, 155 F.3d at 168 (It would seem that federal habeas power is limited, first, to a determination of whether there has been an improper detention by virtue of the state court judgment; and second, if [the federal court] find[s] such an illegal detention, to ordering the immediate release of the prisoner, conditioned on the state's opportunity to correct constitutional errors that [it] conclude[s] occurred in the initial proceeding.); see also Smith, 9 F.3d at 367; Duhamel, 955 F.2d at 968. Such indirect orders not only pay heed to the historical use of the writ and the interests of the habeas plaintiff, but also recognize the significant state interests at stake. As the U.S. Supreme Court explained in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 393, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964), a state defendant should have the opportunity to have all issues tried in a state court under appropriate state procedures. But the State, too, has a weighty interest in having valid federal constitutional criteria applied in the administration of its criminal law by its own courts and juries. Id. The federal remedy should be narrowly designed to enable the state court to fulfill its constitutional obligation. Dickerson, 90 F.3d at 92; see also Henderson, 155 F.3d at 168 (noting federal courts have most often granted the relief in habeas cases that has required the least intervention into the state criminal process.). Furthermore, once the state court or other authority timely acts to address the perceived violation forming the basis for the issuance of the conditional writ, the final writ will not issue. Having set forth our understanding of the terms and nature of the PCRA, the nature of federal habeas review of state court convictions, and the limited role played by the lower federal courts in reviewing final state court judgments, the answer to whether the federal civil collateral order entered in this case operates to reopen the final Pennsylvania judgment concerning the verdict of guilt is clear. It does not. Lesko's federal habeas petition raised claims attacking both his conviction and his penalty. His guilt phase claims were specifically rejected; the relief he received was confined to the penalty proceeding. Thus, the Third Circuit's order authorizing conditional issuance of a writ of habeas corpus provided: For the reasons stated in this opinion, we will reverse the judgment under review [i.e., the judgment of the federal district court] to the extent that it sustains the imposition of the death penalty. We will remand to the district court for the holding of an evidentiary hearing on [Lesko]'s claim that his Indiana County guilty plea was not voluntary and for the subsequent issuance of the writ insofar as the death penalty is concerned. We will direct the district court to issue the writ subject to the holding of a state court resentencing proceeding within a reasonable period of time to be set by the district court. If the district court determines, on the basis of the evidentiary hearing described in the last paragraph, that [Lesko]'s Indiana County guilty plea was not voluntary, the writ shall be issued subject to the additional requirement that evidence of the guilty plea not be introduced at the resentencing proceeding. We will affirm the judgment under review to the extent that it sustains the determination of [Lesko]'s guilt. Lesko v. Lehman, 925 F.2d at 1555. [11] On remand from the Third Circuit, the federal district court deemed the guilty plea related to the Indiana County murder to be involuntary by the representation that it would not be introduced during the Westmoreland penalty phase hearing. The district court's order conditionally granting habeas relief respecting the penalty phase specified that evidence related to the void plea cannot be introduced at the resentencing proceeding in the Westmoreland County case. Lesko v. Lehman, 1992 WL 717815 (W.D.Pa.1992). The Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas then conducted a second penalty hearingnot a trial on guilt or innocenceafter which a jury of Lesko's peers again sentenced him to death. Lesko was denied relief from the resentencing proceeding on direct review to this Court and this state collateral appeal is now before us under, and subject to the terms of, the PCRA. In light of the nature of PCRA review, the limited effect of collateral federal proceedings on a final state criminal judgment, and the nature of federal habeas relief, we conclude that Lesko's right to first petition PCRA review is necessarily confined to that part of the final Pennsylvania judgment that was disturbed by the federal habeas proceedings. All other aspects of the original judgment remain as beforefinal. The federal habeas court, far from purporting to upset the verdict of guilt, explicitly affirmed the district court judgment sustaining that aspect of the trial. The resentencing that occurred as a result of the coercive federal habeas mandate did not purport to revive the claims that expired once the 1981 verdict of guilt became final. The finality of the judgment must be analyzed in light of the context in which the subsequent proceedings occurred, including the intervening habeas proceedings. Thus, we hold that the 1981 Pennsylvania judgment of sentence is final for all purposes except for that part of the final judgment that was disturbed by the federal habeas proceedings, i.e., Lesko's penalty phase proceeding. Lesko's judgment of sentence in terms of his conviction for first-degree murder became final in 1984, after his certiorari petition in the U.S. Supreme Court was denied. Lesko subsequently filed a timely PCHA petition, but was denied relief in 1985. Thus, Lesko did not qualify for the one-year tolling provision in the 1995 amendments as the instant filing represented a serial petition. See Fay, supra . (The Commonwealth's suggestion that Lesko had until January 16, 1997 to file a timely PCRA petition raising claims of ineffectiveness of trial counsel at his 1981 guilt trial is incorrect.) Rather, Lesko had until January 16, 1996the date the 1995 amendments to the PCRA took effect, eliminating the ability to file serial PCRA petitions as of rightto file a timely second or subsequent PCRA petition raising claims arising from his 1981 guilt trial. [12] To allow Lesko to pursue a PCRA petition as of right to raise new guilt phase claims more than 25 years later, after a direct appeal, an of-right PCHA petition, and completed federal habeas corpus proceedings, would render the time limitations of the PCRA meaningless. Lesko emphasizes that because he was represented by the same counsel until the filing of his amended PCRA petition in 1999, the 1999 petition represented his first opportunity to challenge counsel's ineffectiveness at his original trial in 1981. But, it is well established that the fact that a petitioner's claims are couched in terms of ineffectiveness will not save an otherwise untimely petition from the application of the time restrictions of the PCRA. Commonwealth v. Breakiron, 566 Pa. 323, 781 A.2d 94, 97 (2001). Lesko further maintains that this Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Chambers, 570 Pa. 3, 807 A.2d 872 (2002), unequivocally establishes the correctness of the PCRA court's ruling that the guilt-stage issues from the initial trial in 1981 are substantively appropriate for PCRA review. Brief of Appellee Lesko at 9. In Chambers, the appellant was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed his conviction, but remanded for a new penalty trial. After Chambers was sentenced to death a second time in 1994, he filed a direct appeal and that judgment of sentence was affirmed. Chambers was represented by the same counsel from the time of trial through his appeal of his second penalty trial. Subsequently, represented by new counsel, Chambers filed a timely PCRA petition challenging his 1994 judgment of sentence. This Court addressed Chambers' layered claims of ineffectiveness of trial counsel related to his conviction, despite the fact that the claims were raised in a PCRA petition that was filed more than one year after Chambers' original conviction became final. Chambers, however, is distinguishable from the instant case for several reasons. First, the Commonwealth in Chambers did not challenge the propriety of Chambers raising guilt phase claims and this Court did not raise such an inquiry sua sponte; in this case, the Commonwealth does recognize and pursue the jurisdictional issue. Second, the collateral proceedings following the new penalty phase in Chambers were state-court proceedings. Finally, Chambers' PCRA petition was his first petition for collateral relief and not a serial petition following federal habeas review. Accordingly, we hold that the PCRA court did not have jurisdiction over Lesko's claims related to guilt-phase errors and we reverse that portion of the PCRA court's order. [13]