Court Opinion

ID: 9730666
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:20:26.61676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:08.487528
License: Public Domain

*154SPAETH, Judge,
dissenting:
Appellant’s claim is not, as the majority says, that counsel was ineffective for not calling Paine, but for not interviewing him. Since I can find no reasonable basis for counsel’s failure to interview Paine, I should hold counsel ineffective. In Commonwealth v. Mabie, 467 Pa. 464, 359 A.2d 369 (1976), the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion:
[CJounsel decided not to interview eyewitness to the incident based only on the testimony of one witness at the preliminary hearing and the conversation with Mabie. From the above information, it is counsel’s position that these witnesses were so hostile that to call them to testify would invite a conviction for murder of the first degree. However hostile these witnesses may have appeared to be, there is no basis for the decision neither to interview them nor to attempt to do so. While hostile witnesses at trial may have presented added difficulties to appellant’s case, the question here is the decision not to interview them, not the decision to refrain from calling them at trial. Accordingly, there was no danger of hostile witnesses inflaming a jury during an interview to determine what each saw and their degree of potential hostility. Rather, the value of the interview is to inform counsel of the facts of the case so that he may formulate strategy. Perhaps, after questioning these witnesses, counsel may have concluded that the best strategy was not to call them due to hostility and, as a matter of strategy, that decision on counsel’s part would not be subject to a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Commonwealth v. Owens, 454 Pa. 268, 312 A.2d 378 (1973). However, no such claim of strategy can be attached to a decision not to interview or make an attempt to interview eyewitnesses prior to trial. Therefore, no reasonable basis designed to effectuate Mabie’s interest can be attributed to counsel’s failure to question these witnesses or at least make a reasonable attempt to do so.
Id., 467 Pa. at 474-475, 359 A.2d at 374-75.
*155The order of the lower court should be reversed, and appellant’s petition for new trial granted.
JACOBS, President Judge, joins in this opinion.