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

Heading: Failure to Challenge the Evidence Supporting the Rape Conviction

Text: Appellant next argues that the murder and rape charges were so intertwined that challenging one would have the effect of weakening the prosecution's case on the other. Appellant asserts that, given the lack of physical evidence, the only evidence supporting the rape charge was the testimony of Ferry, and that trial counsel did not adequately develop the point. [16] Appellant also claims that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise this issue in post-verdict proceedings or on direct appeal. The Commonwealth responds that this issue was previously litigated on direct appeal. The Commonwealth notes that this Court held that there was compelling physical and circumstantial evidence supporting the rape conviction, including the presence of sperm and seminal fluid consistent with appellant's blood groupings and genetic characteristics on the victim's clothing and in her vagina, as well as appellant's admissions to Ferry and White that he raped and then murdered the victim to prevent her from reporting the rape to the police. See Tedford I, 567 A.2d at 618. The PCRA court agreed, finding that appellant was attempting to relitigate this sufficiency issue under the guise of ineffective assistance of counsel. The current claim lacks arguable merit. At the hearing on appellant's post-verdict motions, appellant alleged that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge the evidence supporting the rape conviction. Trial counsel testified that he did not consider it important to attempt to contradict the circumstantial evidence of rape because appellant was going to admit to sexual contact, albeit consensual, when taking the stand. Trial counsel was also questioned regarding his decision not to offer testimony impeaching the testimony of Ferry, who had testified that, while in jail, appellant admitted to raping and then murdering the victim so as to prevent her from reporting the rape to the police. Trial counsel stated that Timothy Sunday, the witness who supposedly would have impeached Ferry, declined to testify; and furthermore, trial counsel noted, as appellant's accomplice in a failed escape attempt, Sunday would have been easily impeached by the Commonwealth. Based on the foregoing, trial counsel's decision not to mount a further or different challenge to the Commonwealth's rape evidence was reasonable. Thus, appellant's derivative appellate counsel ineffectiveness claim lacks arguable merit. Moreover, contrary to appellant's claim, appellate counsel did indeed address this claim in his post-verdict motions and at the February 1988 evidentiary hearing, so any decision on appellate counsel's part not to pursue this claim on direct appeal also appears to have been reasonably based.