Opinion ID: 1915285
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Instruction Regarding the Torture Aggravator

Text: The trial court instructed the jury that it was permitted to consider whether the offenses in question were committed by means of torture: Torture is the infliction of a considerable amount of pain and suffering on a victim which is unnecessarily heinous, atrocious or cruel manifesting exceptional depravity. It must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to torture his victims to death and the actual commission of the offenses included such concurrent acts as to set the crime apart from the norm of capital felonies, that is the conscientiousness or the pitiless crime which is unnecessarily painful to the victim or victims. N.T. at 1574. Appellant asserts that this instruction was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that counsel was ineffective for failing to object and for failing to raise this issue on appeal. The PCRA court found that counsel did raise this issue on direct appeal, and this Court addressed it, concluding that the claim is previously litigated. On direct appeal, this Court did indeed consider whether the trial court erred in submitting the question of torture to the jury and whether the jury's finding of torture was supported by the evidence. Steele, 559 A.2d at 913. In analyzing these issues, we reviewed the charge to the jury and concluded as follows: Moreover the record reflects that the trial court properly charged the jury, by defining torture as the infliction of a considerable amount of pain and by stating that it must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to torture his victims to death. There is a presumption in the law that the jury followed the instructions given by the trial judge and thus, properly found that the appellant did intend to torture the victims. Commonwealth v. Stoltzfus, 462 Pa. 43, 55, 337 A.2d 873, 879 (1975) (We will not presume that the jurors disregarded their duty and the instructions of the Court); Dauphin v. Standard Oil Company, 312 Pa. 229, 232, 167 A. 287, 288 (1933) (The presumption is that the jury complied with the court's instructions). Id. Therefore, because the question of the trial court's charge to the jury regarding the torture aggravator was previously litigated and rejected, Appellant cannot satisfy the arguable merit prong of Pierce with regard to counsel's ineffectiveness. See Commonwealth v. Dennis, ___ Pa. ___, 950 A.2d 945 (2008).