Opinion ID: 2301195
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Treaty Bar

Text: Appellant proposes a claim based upon an alleged violation of the United Nations Organization's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other similar treaties. See International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, 6 I.L.M. 368 (entered into force Mar. 23, 1976). Appellant posits that the ICCPR bars the application of any state procedural rule as a basis to deny substantive review of a federal constitutional violation in a death penalty case. Appellant's Brief at 45. He suggests that the United States is bound by treaty to ensure that death sentences are not imposed or carried out in contravention of the substantive standards embodied in the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments concerning cruel and unusual punishment. Id. at 47. This claim is frivolous. As the Commonwealth points out, Appellant is not currently under a sentence of death. Moreover, in a case the FCDO itself litigated and lost, this Court expressly rejected the notion than an ICCPR claim is cognizable under the PCRA. See Commonwealth v. Judge, 591 Pa. 126, 916 A.2d 511 (2007) (discussing and rejecting claims premised upon ICCPR and dismissing legal predicate upon which such treaty-based theories depend). Assuming, arguendo, that Appellant did possess a meritorious claim under the PCRA, the United States government's treaty obligations do not preclude the application of state procedural rules to bar judicial review of that claim. In Breard v. Greene, 523 U.S. 371, 375, 118 S.Ct. 1352, 140 L.Ed.2d 529 (1998), the United States Supreme Court explicitly stated that it has been recognized in international law that, absent a clear and express statement to the contrary, the procedural rules of the forum State govern the implementation of the treaty in that state. See Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon, 548 U.S. 331, 347, 126 S.Ct. 2669, 165 L.Ed.2d 557 (2006) (non-self-executing treaties do not create judicially-enforceable rights or procedures); accord Commonwealth v. Quaranibal, 763 A.2d 941 (Pa.Super.2000) (applying Breard holding that international treaty may not trump state procedural rules). Application of Pennsylvania's procedural rules, as a basis to deny review of Appellant's PCRA claim, does not violate the implementation of any international treaties. Appellant's claim is wholly baseless.