Opinion ID: 2365503
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The claim of ineffectiveness of appellate counsel

Text: The claim that prior counsel's failure to file a brief and to make oral argument entitles the defendant to a renewed presentation of his case to this Court was considered and rejected by this Court in 1973; it must surely now be considered res judicata. [16] Because, however, the Court considers the matter anew and now reverses itself by affirming the post-conviction hearing court's order, I address the question briefly on the merits. (A) As previously indicated, a brief was filed on appellant's behalf. This is a fact of which we have personal, direct knowledge. We also know, from having studiously scrutinized the brief at the time of the prior appeal, that it was a good, lawyerlike brief. It consisted of 37 typewritten pages, the first five and one-half being devoted to a detailed recitation of the facts, the balance to legal argument. The headings of the argument portion of the brief are substantially as follows: (1) Denial of preliminary hearing was error. (2) Exclusion of jurors who had scruples against capital punishment was error. (3) Error was committed in admitting into evidence the statements of an alleged co-conspirator. (4) The evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to sustain the convictions. (5) Error was committed in allowing color slides of the bodies of the victims to be introduced into evidence. (6) The lower court erred in refusing to quash the indictment. These are precisely the topics which were dealt with, with some rearrangement, in the opinion in support of affirmance. See Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 446 Pa. 419 286 A.2d 898 (1969). Indeed, these are the same arguments that are dealt with in the new brief now before us on Sullivan's behalf in his direct appeal at No. 121 except that the first two points of the original brief have been dropped. [17] The primary substantive difference between appellant's original brief and the current one is that the latter includes citations to cases decided since 1970. The court characterizes the brief of prior counsel as highly unorthodox because it failed to comply with our rules. (Opinion of the Court, ante 472 Pa. at 145, 371 A.2d at 476). It is true that the brief had no proper backer, one segment was triple-spaced and it lacked a statement of jurisdiction and of questions involved or a summary of argument. [18] It is one thing to say that this was careless disregard of our rules relative to the formalities of constructing a brief; it is quite another thing to conclude, as does the majority, that this type of unorthodoxy equates with constitutional inadequacy. We are, unfortunately, treated to non-conforming briefs at session after session, but this does not mean that the content may not be sound, solid and effective advocacy. In my personal judgment, the brief here in issue was just that. The majority, however, like the court below, fails to examine the content of the brief and thus ignores substance while exalting form when it now holds the brief to be legally ineffective. [19] (B) The other basis on which the PCHA hearing judge and this Court find ineffectiveness by prior counsel is the waiver of oral argument. I agree that it would have been preferable for counsel to make such an argument. While opinions of judges differ as to the value of such arguments, my own view is that, more often than not, they are helpful to the appellate court. [20] But to say as much is not to suggest that absence of oral argument is apt to make a difference in the outcome of a case  especially a case that, due to a heavy backlog of cases awaiting disposition, cannot be decided for some time to come. [21] That there was nothing unusual in Sullivan's counsel having waived argument is shown by the fact that in the calendar year 1975, nineteen appeals from convictions of murder in the first degree were submitted to this Court on briefs; in the calendar year 1976, at least twenty-six such appeals were submitted on briefs. Moreover, in no appeals from orders rendered in PCHA proceedings do we permit oral argument except by special order of court, notwithstanding that all such cases appealed as of right to this Court involve felonious homicides. Pa.R.A.P. 2311(b), formerly Supreme Court Rule 71. As to the reason oral argument was waived, Mr. Sullivan testified that Mr. Peruto, his counsel, thought the case should not be argued for political reasons and to avoid a presentation to this Court, in the presence of the families of the victims, of the unpleasant details of the assassination-type killings here involved. In a case where the evidence was circumstantial and a paramount issue was sufficiency, it is understandable that counsel could conclude, in his client's best interest, that the less said about the factual details, the better. [22] In any event, waiver of oral argument cannot be said as a matter of law to have rendered counsel constitutionally ineffective. [23] To recapitulate, at No. 127, I would reverse the order of the court of common pleas granting Sullivan leave, nunc pro tunc, to refile a direct appeal to this Court as of November Term, 1966. Since, however, the majority of the Court affirms that order and considers the case anew on its merits at No. 121, I deem it appropriate to indicate my agreement with its conclusion that the judgment of sentence should be affirmed. The appeal of Sullivan from the post-conviction proceeding order at No. 122 is properly before the Court, and I concur in the affirmance of that order. O'BRIEN, J., joins in this concurring and dissenting opinion.