Opinion ID: 1562759
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Ask Prospective Jurors Life Qualifying Questions

Text: Appellant also claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to ask prospective jurors life qualifying questions which, he says, resulted in a death sentence violative of due process and the Eighth Amendment. Appellant asserts that five of the jurors have provided declarations indicating that they would automatically impose death in any first-degree murder case and that the presence of such jurors on a capital case amounts to structural error. Appellant argues that this claim is distinguishable from cases like Commonwealth v. Simmons, 569 Pa. 405, 804 A.2d 625, 638 (2001) (OAJC), where ineffectiveness claims were rejected based on counsel's failure to life-qualify the jury, because at least five of the jurors here supposedly shared an actual and disqualifying bias against imposition of a life sentence. The Commonwealth counters that this Court has previously rejected such a claim in cases like Simmons, supra, and Commonwealth v. Williams, 557 Pa. 207, 732 A.2d 1167 (1999). The PCRA court agreed and dismissed appellant's claim as lacking in arguable merit and legally insufficient. `Life qualification' is the process by which prospective jurors are excluded from the jury based on their fixed opinion that the death penalty must be imposed for a first degree murder conviction. Commonwealth v. Speight, 578 Pa. 520, 854 A.2d 450, 459 (2004). Although a defendant wishing to life-qualify the jurors on voir dire must be permitted to do so, Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719, 735-36, 112 S.Ct. 2222, 119 L.Ed.2d 492 (1992), there is no general requirement to life-qualify jurors, and thus counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to do so. Carson, 913 A.2d at 262; see also Rega, 933 A.2d at 1019-20 ([A]lthough trial counsel is permitted to life-qualify the jury, such questions are not required and counsel is not per se ineffective for failing to pose them as long as the jury selection process is otherwise fair and impartial.); Speight, 854 A.2d at 459 (defendant not prejudiced by counsel's failure to life-qualify jurors even though jurors were death-qualified); Commonwealth v. Morris, 546 Pa. 296, 684 A.2d 1037, 1043 (1996) (counsel's failure to ask life-qualifying questions during voir dire did not support claim of ineffective assistance of counsel where trial court conducted thorough voir dire, properly instructed jury on capital sentencing procedure, and asked each juror whether he or she could follow court's instructions notwithstanding personal beliefs). Appellant attempts to distinguish this case from the above-referenced authority by referencing his unsworn juror declarations. Even assuming that those declarations prove that the five jurors would have said the same thing under oath at voir dire, and would have been subject to challenge for cause during a life-qualification inquiry, appellant has failed to prove that appellate counsel was ineffective. The declarations PCRA counsel secured years after the fact in order to generate this claim did not exist when appellate counsel pursued the direct appeal; counsel had no constitutional duty to interview jurors; and appellant has not offered any argument explaining what there is that would have put counsel on notice to interview the five jurors. Moreover, given appellant's choice not to present mitigation evidence, it is difficult to see any prejudice resulting from the underlying failure to pursue life-qualifying questions. Furthermore, the trial record reflects that prospective jurors were questioned regarding whether they could follow the laws of the Commonwealth and instructions of the court notwithstanding their personal views on the death penalty. Appellant's unsworn declarations do not account for this record fact, involving what the same jurors said under oath. Appellant's unsworn juror declarations cannot serve as the basis of a failure-to-life-qualify ineffectiveness claim and do not overcome the of-record evidence of an adequate voir dire. Accordingly, this layered claim of ineffectiveness lacks arguable merit.