Court Opinion

ID: 9750664
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 15:18:26.053124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:16.733729
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice CASTILLE,
concurring.
I join the Majority Opinion, which reverses the Superior Court’s grant of a new trial, subject to the three observations expressed below.
First, I write to further address the waiver issue posed by appellee in footnote 3 of the Majority Opinion. Appellee claims that the Commonwealth waived its argument that appellee forfeited his right to counsel because the Commonwealth did not raise that theory in the trial court. Like the Majority, I believe the Commonwealth’s forfeiture argument is reviewable here. I write to explain why I believe that is so.
The Superior Court majority in this case faulted the trial court for allowing appellee to proceed to trial pro se (albeit with standby counsel at taxpayer expense) without first conducting an affirmative counsel waiver colloquy pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 121(A)(2), and held that the trial court thereby “denied [appellee’s] constitutional right to be represented by counsel because [appellee] did not knowingly and voluntarily give up the right to be represented by counsel.” Commonwealth v. Lucarelli, 914 A.2d 924, 932 (Pa.Super.2006). Thus, the key to the finding of error was the absence of a Rule 121 colloquy, which was presumed to render appellee’s waiver or forfeiture of counsel at trial invalid.
However, appellee himself did not complain in the trial court about the failure to engage him in a Rule 121 counsel waiver colloquy, either at any of his numerous pre-trial hearings or at the trial itself, despite the fact that appellee commented on his pro se status (albeit with standby counsel) and was directly asked by the trial court if he had any other *198issues to raise before the start of trial. N.T. 11/15/04, at 3. Obviously, if appellee had complained, the judge could have remedied that alleged lapse immediately, and appellee’s winning appeal issue in Superior Court would have disappeared. Rather, appellee’s actual complaint at the trial level involved a request that the trial court either: (a) order Attorney Marsilio, his former attorney, to return his retainer; or (b) order Attorney Marsilio to continue to represent him despite the trial court’s finding that the attorney-client relationship had completely broken down. Furthermore, after the trial court reduced appellee’s bail for the specific purpose of making $20,000 available to appellee to retain new counsel, appellee still appeared at his previously scheduled jury selection on November 2, 2004, without retaining a lawyer. Appellee then proceeded to represent himself (with the assistance of standby counsel) at trial, again, without objection.
On a record such as this, and in a legal system that respects one’s free will, a strong argument can be made that it was appellee who waived any complaint concerning the absence of a Rule 121 colloquy, and any concomitant complaint that the absence of the colloquy, rather than appellee’s own recalcitrance, operated to “deprive” him of counsel. For purposes of this appeal, however, I will not go so far in light of Commonwealth v. Davido, 582 Pa. 52, 868 A.2d 431 (2005). In Davido, the appellant claimed he had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to self-representation when the trial court denied his request to proceed pro se without first conducting a colloquy. The Commonwealth argued that the issue should have been raised as an ineffectiveness claim because the appellant was represented by standby counsel at trial and counsel failed to object to the lack of a colloquy. However, over the disagreement of this author, a majority of the Davido Court held that the claim was “properly addressed as the error of the trial court, since Rule 121 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure [set] forth the procedure a judge must follow to determine whether the waiver of counsel was made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily.” Id. at 437. Thus, we determined that “it is up to the trial court, not *199counsel, to ensure that a colloquy is performed if the defendant has invoked his right to self-representation.” Id. at 437-38. Of course, Davido is not on all-fours with the forfeiture situation sub judice, but, it is enough not to press the waiver issue.
Appellee’s failure to object at trial, however, is directly relevant to his waiver argument here because it would be bizarre to overlook appellee’s trial-level failure to object, and then fault the Commonwealth for failing to rebut the objection never made by appellee. Thus, the very fact that appellee was permitted to pursue the no-colloquy complaint for the first time on appeal obviously eviscerates appellee’s present claim that the Commonwealth waived its forfeiture argument — an argument which directly rebuts appellee’s Rule 121 complaint raised on appeal — by failing to raise it in the trial court. Additionally, while appellee insists that the Commonwealth should have argued the doctrine of forfeiture of counsel at the trial court level, it is unclear how the Commonwealth was supposed to have done so. At trial, appellee, who clearly could afford counsel, proceeded without counsel and without objection. A defendant has as strong a constitutional right to self-representation as he does to counsel. See Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 821, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975); Commonwealth v. Starr, 541 Pa. 564, 664 A.2d 1326, 1334-1335 (1995). The Commonwealth is not obliged to rescue a non-indigent defendant from his own perilous decisions. I would decline to place the burden of prescience on the Commonwealth. Because the Commonwealth timely raised its forfeiture argument in direct response to appellee’s belated complaint first raised on appeal concerning his waiver of counsel and the absence of a colloquy, there has been no waiver by the Commonwealth.
Second, and turning to the merits, I would add the following to the Majority’s analysis. In the counsel denial/forfeiture area, there is obviously a difference between an indigent defendant desiring self-representation and a defendant with the means to retain counsel. Where, as occurred in the case sub judice, the defendant has the means to retain counsel, and *200is instructed that he is ineligible for appointment of counsel, the primary burden is on the defendant to exercise this right. If the defendant fails to do so, he may forfeit his right to be represented at trial notwithstanding his most vehement assertions that he does not wish to proceed pro se. See, e.g. United States v. Thomas, 357 F.3d 357, 363-64 (C.A.3 (Pa.)2004); Commonwealth v. Coleman, 905 A.2d 1003, 1008 (Pa.Super.2006); Commonwealth v. Wentz, 280 Pa.Super. 427, 421 A.2d 796, 800 (1980). The notion, accepted by the Superior Court majority below, that a trial court somehow “denies” a non-indigent defendant his right to counsel by failing to offer a waiver colloquy is a misperception. This analysis elevates the rule-based colloquy over the constitutional right at issue. “A waiver colloquy is a procedural device; it is not a constitutional end or a constitutional right .... the colloquy does not share the same status as the right itself.” Commonwealth v. Mallory, 596 Pa. 172, 941 A.2d 686, 697(2008) (discussing absence of waiver colloquy in context of defendant’s waiver of jury trial), cert. denied - U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 257, 172 L.Ed.2d 146 (2008). The “denial” of counsel that results when a defendant has the means to afford counsel but refuses to secure counsel, despite being told the burden is on him to secure counsel, is at the defendant’s own hands.
In this case, it is clear from the record that the trial court informed appellee that he would be going to trial on the listed date “with or without counsel” on several occasions. Thus, the trial court informed appellee in July that “we’ll reschedule this for September for sure, whether you have an attorney or not. That will give you plenty of time to get one and be ready to go.” N.T. 7/13/04, at 6 (emphasis added). In October, the trial court, after reducing appellee’s bail by $20,000 precisely to ensure that he would have sufficient funds to retain another private attorney, told appellee that “I’m going to keep Mr. Trathen in as standby [counsel], if you don’t get an attorney, to answer any questions you might have because you’re going to proceed by yourself, otherwise.” N.T. 10/7/04, at 3 (emphasis added). These clear warnings served to bring home to appellee that the obligation *201was on him to secure counsel and that the consequence would be self-representation. The fact that appellee chose to ignore the trial court’s warnings and failed to secure private counsel clearly supports a finding of forfeiture. I do not believe that the absence of a colloquy in the face of a non-indigent defendant’s unexcused refusal to secure counsel, despite ample opportunity to do so, can be said to operate as a state-sponsored “denial” of the right to counsel. Constitutional law is not so paternalistic, and criminal defendants, like all other litigants, may fairly be charged with responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
Finally, and notwithstanding that I firmly believe appellee is not entitled to relief, I believe that it would be better if trial judges conducted a Rule 121-style colloquy on the record even in cases of forfeiture of counsel, so as to avoid the inevitable case-specific litigation that will follow in circumstances like those presented here. I express that preference solely as a supervisory matter; as I have explained above, I do not believe that the constitutional right to counsel requires that a non-indigent defendant be fully colloquied concerning the obvious consequences of his refusal to secure counsel.1

. I should add that this was a particularly curious case for the Superior Court to award relief given that the trial judge went so far as to appoint standby counsel to assist appellee, who was not entitled to any assistance at taxpayer expense.