Court Opinion

ID: 9693675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:56:32.592151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:49.668311
License: Public Domain

Justice SAYLOR,
concur.
I join the majority’s reasoning and holding relative to Issues 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8. Although I agree with the result, my reasoning differs from the majority with respect to Issues 1, 3, and 7, as follows.
On the ineffectiveness claim deriving from the trial court’s refusal to admit a missing person report containing information favorable to the defense (a subpart of the majority’s Issue 1), see Majority Opinion, op. at 193-94, 898 A.2d at 564, I have reservations concerning the majority’s analysis as to whether the report qualifies for treatment under the business records hearsay exception. I believe that this sort of an inquiry in the context of police records should, to a degree, be fact dependent, as the business records exception should not subsume records prepared in anticipation of litigation. Accord Commonwealth v. Carter, 861 A.2d 957, 962 (Pa.Super.2004), appeal granted, 583 Pa. 678, 877 A.2d 459 (2005)(per curiam). See generally Echo Acceptance Corp. v. Household Retail Services, Inc., 267 F.3d 1068 (10th Cir.2001) (“It is well-established that one who prepares a document in anticipation of litigation is not acting in the regular course of business.” (citation omitted)).1
On the matter of a second layer of hearsay associated with the missing persons report, I disagree with the majority’s assertion that Appellant does not attempt to articulate any basis for admissibility relative to this layer. See Majority *230Opinion, op. at 194-95, 898 A.2d at 565. In this regard, Appellant cites Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), arguing that the United States Constitution required the admission of the statements over and against Pennsylvania’s hearsay jurisprudence to vindicate Appellant’s right to present a defense. See Brief for Appellant at 84-85 (citing Chambers, 410 U.S. at 302, 93 S.Ct. at 1049) (“[Wjhere constitutional rights directly affecting the ascertainment of guilt are implicated, the hearsay rule may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice.”).
I am able to concur in the majority’s disposition of this claim for different reasons, however. First, Chambers has been closely confined to its facts and circumstances, involving third-party confessions that, if believed, would exculpate an accused. See, e.g., United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303, 118 S.Ct. 1261, 140 L.Ed.2d 413 (1998). Further, as Appellant acknowledges, even if it could be extended to the present circumstances, Chambers requires that the evidence at issue contain sufficient indicia of trustworthiness to implicate an overarching fairness principle. See Chambers, 410 U.S. at 302, 93 S.Ct. at 1049. However, much of the information contained in the missing person report at issue facially lacks such trustworthiness. For example, Appellant contends that the jury should have been presented with a portion of the report summarizing a confidential informant’s statement that the victim had been killed by a motorcycle gang as a result of a betrayal associated with drug activity, particularly since the investigating officer asserted in the report that the informant was believable and had provided reliable information in the past. See Brief for.Appellant at 85. The informant’s statement also indicates, however, that the victim was taken to Canada and burned in an incinerator leaving no evidence, see Supplementary Report dated January 20, 1984, an assertion that has no basis in fact, since the victim’s remains were eventually found in Lebanon County. On its broadest reading, Chambers does not override prevailing state hearsay rules in such circumstances. With respect to the report’s summary of several witness accounts of having seen the victim alive *231after the time that Appellant became incarcerated, again, Appellant does not identify particularized circumstances strongly evidencing trustworthiness associated such statements (he points out only that the alleged sightings were by persons who knew the victim and had no apparent reason to lie). Rather, the report seems to me to represent an amalgamation of frequently inconsistent information from numerous sources collected by police over the course of several years, containing a collage of fact, rumor, and unreliable information which are, in many instances, indistinguishable on the face of the report, as frequently occurs in missing person investigations.2
Appellant also contends that his trial counsel were ineffective for failing to present testimony from the witnesses named in the report.3 Although the claim that trial counsel’s stewardship was deficient in their failure to investigate and produce at trial the witnesses identified in the report seems colorable and might otherwise warrant an evidentiary hearing, there are no affidavits or declarations from such witnesses within Appellant’s evidentiary proffer submitted with the PCRA petition. As such, Appellant has not brought material facts into issue with regard to prejudice, and therefore, I believe that the PCRA court’s decision to dismiss the claim *232without an evidentiary hearing is supportable. Accord Commonwealth v. Priovolos, 552 Pa. 364, 368-69, 715 A.2d 420, 422 (1998) (describing the required offer of proof relative to a claim of deficient attorney stewardship for failing to call a witness at trial).
Regarding Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim related to appellate counsel’s failure to challenge the trial court’s decision to exclude defense evidence rebutting the Commonwealth’s assertion that the victim’s character was such that she would not leave her child for extended periods (treated in the latter portion of Issue 1 of the majority opinion), see Majority Opinion, op. at 196-97, 898 A.2d at 566, I note in the first instance that the PCRA court’s summary disposition is facially erroneous. Initially, the PCRA court correctly indicated that the underlying claim of trial court error was waived, because it was not raised on direct appeal. See Commonwealth v. May, No.1990-10071 ¶ 8 (Order dated April 12, 2001). The only mention in the court’s order of the derivative ineffectiveness claim, however, is in a passage addressing a generic claim of ineffective assistance of counsel contained in the PCRA petition, which the court deemed redundant, “as properly layered claims of ineffective assistance of all prior counsel were included in each of the substantive claims set forth in the PCRA petition.” See id. ¶ 14. The deficiency in this analysis is that there is no resolution of the properly layered ineffectiveness claim that was included with! the substantive claim. Rather, such claim appears to have been entirely overlooked by the court.
I believe that the error in this analysis would be sufficient reason to remand the issue to the PCRA court to correct its mistake and address the ineffectiveness claim in a reasoned fashion. Further, I note that the Commonwealth offers no substantive rebuttal concerning the allegation of an underlying trial error; it merely contends that it is not cognizable under the PCRA, as the PCRA petition does not make an affirmative statement as to Appellant’s actual innocence, see Brief for Appellee at 34, and that counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise this claim on appeal, because they pursued *233a reasonable strategy of limiting the direct appeal to a few issues to maintain credibility with the Court. See id. at 35. The Commonwealth’s first assertion, however, is factually inaccurate, see PCRA Petition ¶ 8 (“By this petition for habeas corpus and post-conviction relief, Petitioner asserts that he is innocent ... ”), and, in my view, assessment of its second contention requires, at a minimum, some evaluation of the relative merits of the claims raised in relation to the claim that Appellant now contends should also have been raised. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Williams, 557 Pa. 207, 248, 732 A.2d 1167, 1189 (1999); Commonwealth v. Brown, 544 Pa. 406, 425, 676 A.2d 1178, 1187 (1996) (allowing for the possibility of post-conviction relief “if it can be concluded that an alternative not chosen offered a potential for success substantially greater than the course actually pursued” (citation omitted)).4
The majority proceeds to resolve the claim by attributing an improper motive to the defense, asserting that trial counsel sought only to disparage the victim. See Majority Opinion, op. at 196-97, 898 A.2d at 566. In the absence of a hearing and a credibility assessment by a fact finder, I am unable to join this determination. The information that trial counsel sought to adduce was directly responsive to a contention made by the Commonwealth in its case-in-chief regarding the victim’s behavior for the relevant purpose of establishing a general time frame in which the killing occurred;5 as such, it is not obvious to me that an improper motive on counsel’s part was present.
*234Although for the above reasons I believe that the claim is highly problematic, ultimately, I concur in the denial of PCRA relief, solely because prejudice is not apparent from the face of the record, and there is no relevant post-conviction evidentiary proffer which would have required a hearing relative to the prejudice assessment. During the cross-examination of the victim’s sister, the jury learned that the victim used alcohol and illegal drugs, that she associated with others fairly freely and openly in such activities, and that she spent time on weekends in these endeavors, apparently away from her child. See N.T., March 7, 1991, at 671-88. While the limitations on the defense presentation curtailed Appellant’s ability to demonstrate any additional irresponsibility to rebut the Commonwealth’s evidence, based on the record presented, I do not believe that such restriction is sufficient to create a cloud on the verdict, at least in the absence of some additional, extra-record showing.
As to the question designated in Issue 3 in the majority opinion concerning the bolstering of Commonwealth witnesses, see Majority Opinion, op. at 200-01, 898 A.2d at 568, in the first instance, I believe that the detective’s commentary concerning the eminence of Dr. Hoffman’s qualifications was unnecessary to his explanation of the course of events and would disapprove of such editorializing, although I believe that the prejudice is modest. With regard to Dr. Hoffman’s testimony referencing the report of the non-testifying defense expert, Dr. Mihalakis, I tend to agree with Appellant that there was a modest degree of improper bolstering in the identified passage from the transcript, see N.T., March 6, 1991, at 650 (reflecting the district attorney’s question to the Commonwealth expert, “Again going to Dr. Mijalakis’s report, you indicated that he was in agreement with you in most points ... ”), as distinguished from the latitude afforded to experts to explain the basis for their opinions in terms of *235material not in evidence, including other expert opinion, where such material is of a kind that is relied upon by experts in the field. See, e.g., Boucher v. Pennsylvania Hosp., 831 A.2d 623, 628 (Pa.Super.2003). I would therefore also address this aspect of the claim in terms of the absence of sufficient prejudice appealing on the face of the record, and the absence of an extra-record proffer which might implicate a right to an evidentiary hearing.6
Finally, concerning the discussion and resolution of the mitigation-related claims (Issue 7), see Majority Opinion, at 207-13, 898 A.2d at 572-76, my thoughts largely align with the majority’s analysis, but I agree with Mr. Justice Castille’s point that, upon a sufficient penalty-phase investigation uncovering all reasonably available mitigating evidence, informed strategic choices by counsel may shape the information that is ultimately presented to the jury. See Concurring Opinion, at 218-19, 898 A.2d at 579-80. Here, however, as the majority amply develops, at the appellate review stage, the claim that the trial court had improperly blocked Appellant from developing relevant mitigating evidence in the penalty phase of his trial was strong, obvious from the record, and meritorious. See Majority Opinion, at 207-13, 898 A.2d at 572-76. At least in the absence of some extraordinary circumstance more compelling than the adherence of counsel to some fixed notion concerning the number of claims that should be raised on appeal, I agree with the majority that an appellate advocate’s failure to raise a strong, obvious, and meritorious claim should be sufficient to satisfy a post-conviction petitioner’s burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the verdict has been rendered unreliable by deficient performance.

. The report, however, as such appears facially to fall within the scope of the statutory public records exception to the hearsay rule, see 42 Pa.C.S. § 6104, and I agree with the majority that a distinct evaluation is warranted with regard to the discrete layers of hearsay.

. What does seem to be amply supported in the document is that the victim was involved in illegal drug activity and associated with others in such endeavor; this information was first conveyed to police by the victim's parents at the outset of the investigation and runs throughout the witness accounts over the three-year period covered by the report. Absent some more specific, admissible evidence that the victim was killed as a consequence of this activity, however, I believe that the admission of the evidence of drug activity resided within the discretion of the trial court.

. The majority incorrectly indicates that Appellant does not offer this contention. Compare Majority Opinion, at 196-97, 898 A.2d at 566 (indicating that Appellant “does not now contend that trial counsel were ineffective for failing to call those witnesses to testify"), with Brief for Appellant at 87 ("Alternatively, defense counsel should have conducted an independent investigation of the information in the missing persons report and should have been prepared to present the witnesses named in that report ... [;] [cjounsel’s failures violated Appellant’s state and federal constitutional rights to effective assistance of counsel.”).

. It is obviously necessary in undertaking such assessment to guard against the distorting effects of hindsight. See Commonwealth v. Howard, 553 Pa. 266, 274, 719 A.2d 233, 237 (1998). At the same time, however, where it can be demonstrated that an alternative not chosen offered a potential for success substantially greater than the course actually pursued, a finding that a given strategy lacked a reasonable basis may be warranted. See id.
The Commonwealth asserts that counsel’s strategy on the first direct appeal was clearly reasonable, because they were successful in obtaining a new sentencing hearing. While this is certainly a pertinent consideration, I do not believe that it should obviate an evaluative assessment of other issues, particularly where Appellant also sought relief from the conviction itself.

. To aid in establishing the time frame of the victim's death, see N.T., March 6, 1991, at 499, the Commonwealth introduced testimony from her sister indicating that the victim had a very close relationship with *234her son, see id. at 665, and that it was unusual for the victim to leave her son for a long period of time, see id. at 669.

. In terms of the district attorney's presentation, it should also be noted that, at the time of Dr. Hoffman's testimony, the defense was continuing to reserve the possibility of calling Dr. Mihalakis as a witness.