Opinion ID: 2305923
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Appellant's Direct Appeal:

Text: In his direct appeal to this Court, Appellant raised eighteen issues. Finding the evidence sufficient and rejecting Appellant's claims of error, this Court affirmed the judgment of sentence. Commonwealth v. Ly, 528 Pa. 523, 599 A.2d 613 (1991). We need not discuss our resolution of all the issues, but instead recount only those relating to Appellant's PCRA claims. On direct appeal, this Court addressed Appellant's guilt phase jury instruction challenge as follows: [A]ppellant claims that his counsel was ineffective for failing to object to jury instructions to the effect that malice and intent to kill may be inferred from all the circumstances of the offense, including the use of a deadly weapon upon a vital part of the body. Appellant claims that his trial counsel failed to request an instruction clearly indicating that the Commonwealth had the burden to prove malice and intent to kill beyond a reasonable doubt because without such a charge, the burden shifted to appellant to disprove malice or intent to kill. Ly, 599 A.2d at 619. We concluded that [t]he charge considered as a whole was proper and therefore appellant's counsel was not ineffective for failing to object or in failing to seek additional instructions. Id. Regarding mitigation, we concluded that counsel was not ineffective in failing to utilize that Appellant had a limited education, a young son, tuberculosis, and was under the influence of drugs during the prior robberies. [4] The Court further noted that counsel could not have been ineffective for failing to introduce a mental health report, because the evaluation was not completed until the day after the penalty hearing and because Appellant did not allege that he informed his counsel of his mental health issues prior to the penalty hearing. Moreover, we concluded that even if counsel should have known of the asserted issues, counsel nonetheless reasonably presented mitigation evidence through direct examination of Appellant during the penalty phase proceedings when he adduced evidence concerning Appellant's young son and the extent of Appellant's education. Additionally, we observed that counsel asked Appellant on the witness stand whether there was anything else he would like the jury to know before they sentenced him, and Appellant did not respond with more information. Finally, we also stated that it would have been a reasonable trial strategy not to focus upon his prior drug use.