Opinion ID: 1525843
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Claimed Violation of Discovery Agreement

Text: Appellee next claims that the district attorney violated his discovery obligation after telling trial counsel he would get everything. [15] See N.T., December 29, 1998, at 2; N.T., October 25, 2004, at 153-154. Appellee complains that, despite this agreement, the prosecutor failed to provide trial counsel with: transcripts and court documents showing that, in Lebanon County, Hammer had his sentence modified from 19 to 45 years to 12 to 32 years; a Court Order from Schuylkill County ordering Hammer to cooperate with the Commonwealth with any cases against [Appellee]; a plea agreement that Hammer entered into with the Commonwealth which deleted some of the crimes to which Hammer had originally said he would plead guilty; a preliminary hearing transcript in Schuylkill County in which Hammer testified that, when he gave a statement to the state police in July 1989, they told him they would do whatever they could do to help him; Hammer's trial testimony in Schuylkill County in which he stated that, in exchange for his statement, a state trooper promised Hammer he would talk to the district attorneys and do the best he could for Hammer; and information that, in the course of negotiating a plea agreement in return for testifying against Appellee, Hammer, through his attorney, told a Berks County Assistant District Attorney that he wanted to serve no jail time. Appellee asserts that he was prejudiced by the Commonwealth's failure in this regard, as he was denied substantial impeachment material, which would have afforded the jurors a fuller understanding of Hammer's incentive to testify for the prosecution, thus undermining his accusations. The Commonwealth, on the other hand, relies on the public character of the documents and transcripts in issue and notes that the out-of-county documents were not within the possession of the Berks County prosecutor. See Brief for Appellant at 25 (According to the plain language of [Rule of Criminal Procedure 573], there is simply no authority to indicate that Berks County was responsible for gathering information from other counties and providing that information to [Appellee].). The Commonwealth also notes that Appellee's challenge was raised in his appeals from his robbery and burglary convictions and was recently decided by the Superior Court in the Commonwealth's favor. See Commonwealth v. Sattazahn, 869 A.2d 529, 534 (Pa.Super.2005) (explaining that there is no Brady violation where the parties had equal access to information or if the [a]ppellant knew of or could have uncovered the evidence with reasonable diligence. (citing Grant, 572 Pa. at 55, 813 A.2d at 730)). As to information within the Berks County prosecutor's immediate possession and control, the Commonwealth refutes Appellee's claim of materiality. With regard to previous drafts of the memorandum of cooperation and plea agreement with Hammer, the Commonwealth explains that changes were not made to afford Hammer a more favorable bargain, since the penalties concerning deleted charges were to run concurrently with other charges to which Hammer pleaded, and thus, the actual sentence was unaffected. The Commonwealth further notes that trial counsel conceded that he would not have altered his cross-examination of Hammer based upon this modified agreement. See N.T., January 20, 2005, at 63. Similarly, the Commonwealth contends that Appellee cannot demonstrate that the outcome of trial would have been different if he had been aware that Hammer told the Commonwealth that he did not want to be incarcerated. According to the Commonwealth, Hammer's personal wishes, however unreasonable, were not relevant, particularly since he already had entered his plea after the first trial. See N.T., January 15, 1999, at 265. Moreover, because Hammer did not receive what he was seeking, the Commonwealth contends that the impeachment value of this information is questionable. We agree with the Commonwealth's arguments concerning this claim. Notably, many of the out-of-county documents do not fall within the four corners of Appellee's document requests, other than via the catch-all provision requesting all potentially exculpatory evidence. We do not regard the acquiescence of a county district attorney to such a request as creating an obligation to assemble all potentially relevant records and transcripts from other criminal proceedings in other counties for the benefit of the defense. With regard to the information within the Berks County prosecutor's possession and control, our own assessment concerning materiality/prejudice is in line with that of the Commonwealth.