Opinion ID: 1516216
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Instruction on Unanimity of Life Verdict [46]

Text: In appellant's penultimate claim, he argues that the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that: [w]hen you come to your final verdict whether it's death or life imprisonment it must be unanimous. Each and every member of the jury, all twelve must agree on the final verdict, death or life imprisonment. N.T. 7/18/1995 at 26. Appellant says that this instruction conflicted with an earlier trial court instruction that if the jury could not agree on one of the aggravating circumstances, the jury could only impose a sentence of life in prison. Id. at 2-3. Before attaching this claim to a layered counsel ineffectiveness claim, appellant asserts that the trial court's charge deprived him of his due process rights. The Commonwealth counters by stating that the trial court's instructions on the unanimity required for aggravating and mitigating circumstances was legally proper, whereas the passage appellant referred to related only to the trial verdict. The Commonwealth's argument echoes the reasoning offered by the PCRA court in rejecting appellant's claim. When reviewing a jury instruction, we must do so by evaluating the instruction as a whole to ascertain whether it fairly conveys the required legal principles at the heart of a dispute. Spotz, 896 A.2d at 1247. An instruction will be upheld if it clearly, accurately, and adequately explains the law. Commonwealth v. Chambers, 570 Pa. 3, 807 A.2d 872, 882 (2002). In Chambers, we reiterated that a capital sentence should be vacated if the jury instructions could be interpreted as mandating a unanimous finding as to mitigating circumstances. Id. Here, at the outset of the trial court's instructions, the jury was instructed that it must return a life sentence if all twelve jurors could not agree on one aggravating circumstance or that the aggravating circumstances it found was outweighed by the found mitigating circumstances. N.T. 7/17/1995 at 2-3. The trial court clearly explained to the jury that it must unanimously find aggravating circumstances, but that it was not required to reach unanimity when evaluating mitigating circumstances. Id. at 23-24, 807 A.2d 872. Although the trial court said that a sentence of life or death must be found unanimously, id. at 26, 807 A.2d 872, it qualified that instruction by explaining that: Now if you do not agree unanimously on a death sentence or on one of the two general findings that would support the death sentence, then you have 2 options immediately. You can either continue and discuss the case and deliberate the possibility of a sentence, or if you all agree, you may stop deliberating and sentence the defendant to life imprisonment. If you can come to a point where you have deliberated conscientiously and thoroughly and still cannot all agree to either sentence the defendant to death or to life imprisonment, then you would come back and tell me that you cannot agree. And if I decide that you are hopefully [sic] deadlocked, under the law I then must, it is my duty under the law to, I must impose a life imprisonment. Id. at 27-28, 807 A.2d 872. After reviewing the trial court's instructions in their entirety, this Court is satisfied that the jury was adequately apprised of the legal requirements of unanimity, or implications of its absence, in the capital sentencing process. Additionally, even if we were to find error in the trial court's instructions, counsel cannot be faulted for failing to object because the jury found four aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances, which mandates that the jury must impose the death sentence. This claim fails.