Court Opinion

ID: 9753321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:07:41.612024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:33.812815
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
dissenting:
This case was presented to this Court on submission, without argument. As sometimes happens, the issues sought to be determined here would have benefited from oral advocacy and the responses to questions arising from the particular facts of this case. I find that the issue of sentencing abuse has not been properly preserved and that post-conviction relief is not available on the facts surrounding this appeal: These are the only issues raised in the Brief for Appellant and contained in the Commonwealth’s Brief for Appellee by way of response. I cannot join my colleagues in first raising, and then deciding, a claim of illegality when that claim was never presented nor even suggested by the appellant. Accordingly, I am constrained to dissent.
At the threshold, I conclude that the issue sought to be raised on this appeal was not preserved in the trial court and is, therefore, waived. Pa.R.A.P. 302(a), 42 Pa.C.S.; Preiser v. *321Rosenzweig, 418 Pa.Super. 341, 345, 614 A.2d 303, 305 (1992), appeal granted, 535 Pa. 637, 631 A.2d 1009 (1993) (table). The pleadings filed are instructive in understanding the different positions taken by members of this panel on this appeal.
The Motion to Reconsider Probation Violation Sentence, filed September 11, 1992, sets forth in pertinent part:
5. Defendant requests reconsideration based upon the following:
A. Defendant has already served \Vk to 23 months at CC87083[3]2.
B. The effect of Your Honor’s sentence is, in effect, to give nearly the maximum sentence possible (when the time is accumulated with the time already served). This is far beyond the Guideline sentence for a first offense; the subsequent convictions should not factor into the Guideline as each subsequent sentence already “figured in” the prior convictions.
C. Defendant has already been incarcerated for 15 month[s] continuously since her last arrest.
D. Although defendant’s behavior cannot be condoned, the sentence is very harsh considering she has already served sentences on the violating convictions.
E. Defendant’s underlying drug addiction can better be addressed at the House of Crossroads or the Meadville Medical Center programs, both of which are willing to accept her.
The Concise Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal, filed May 3, 1993, contains the following as the only matters sought to be raised on appeal:
6. The Appellant intends to raise the following issue[s] on appeal:
a. The Court erred in failing to state on the record sufficient reasons for the imposition of sentence after the revocation of probation; and counsel was ineffective for failing to raise this issue at the hearing or in the Motion to Reconsider Sentence.
*322b. The Court abused its discretion in imposing a manifestly excessive sentence which was based solely on the nature of the crimes committed while the defendant was on probation rather than on her rehabilitative needs and the circumstances of the offense for which she was originally sentenced.
In the Brief for Appellant, filed October 27, 1993, the Statement of the Questions Presented, appearing at page 4, sets forth in its entirety:
I. WAS COUNSEL INEFFECTIVE FOR NOT OBJECTING TO THE COURT’S FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH A PLEA AGREEMENT AT ONE INFORMATION IN IMPOSING A TERM OF IMPRISONMENT TO RUN CONSECUTIVE TO A TERM OF IMPRISONMENT IMPOSED AT ANOTHER INFORMATION UPON THE REVOCATION OF PROBATION AT BOTH INFORMA-TIONS?
A. WAS THIS ISSUE WAIVED BY APPELLATE COUNSEL’S FAILURE TO RAISE IT IN THE CONCISE STATEMENT OF REASONS COMPLAINED OF ON APPEAL?
Not addressed by the Court below.
On this appeal, Pamela Anderson, through the Office of the Public Defender, now ignores and abandons the only issues properly preserved through post-trial motions and her Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal. Since she does not now advance contentions included within her trial court pleadings, those issues outside of the pleadings would normally be waived. Matters raised for the first time on appeal are not properly preserved for appellate review and will not be considered. Pa.R.A.P. 302(a), 42 Pa.C.S.; Weir v. Weir, 428 Pa.Super. 515, 524, 631 A.2d 650, 654 (1993); Kryeski v. Schott Glass Technologies, Inc., 426 Pa.Super. 105,114, 626 A.2d 595, 599 (1993). By claiming ineffectiveness, however, Anderson attempts to avoid waiver. She would have this Court review a sentencing issue which falls outside of the eligibility require*323ments of the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541 et seq.
Our legislature has stated in plain terms the basis upon which a sentence can be reviewed, post conviction, and otherwise unpreserved: review is limited to where the conviction resulted from “[t]he imposition of a sentence greater than the lawful maximum.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2)(vii). There is no suggestion by Anderson or by my esteemed colleague, Judge Kelly, that that intentionally narrow requirement has been met in the present case.
If we turn to the basis upon which an ineffectiveness claim may be brought, the legislature has been equally clear. To be eligible for relief, Anderson must be able to plead and prove, among other requirements, that her conviction resulted from “[ineffective assistance of counsel which, in the circumstances of the particular case, so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2)(h).
The claim advanced on this appeal, i.e., that counsel was ineffective for not objecting to the court’s failure to comply with an earlier plea agreement, does not implicate the truth-determining process. Moreover, the sentence does not exceed the lawful maximum. Because the matter raised on appeal was not properly preserved through a motion to modify sentence, I conclude that the judgment of sentence must, without more, be affirmed. Accordingly, I dissent.
It is true that this Court, in Commonwealth v. McMullen, 365 Pa.Super. 556, 559 n. 1, 530 A.2d 450, 452 n. 1 (1987), stated in dicta, by use of a footnote, that a sentencing guidelines claim, when couched in terms of the ineffective assistance of counsel, raises an issue under the sixth amendment of the federal constitution, thereby escaping the need for compliance with Commonwealth v. Tuladziecki, 513 Pa. 508, 522 A.2d 17 (1987) and Pa.R.A.P. 2119(f). There is no discussion in that opinion, however, of the legislatively created separation between ineffectiveness claims, which require an undermining of *324the truth-determining process, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2)(ii), and questions regarding the legality of the sentence, which require that the sentence under review be “greater than the lawful maximum” to merit review. Id. § 9543(a)(2)(vii).
I would reject what my most esteemed colleague is intent on ignoring, namely, the appellant’s sole contention: that she can escape counsel’s failure to preserve the sentencing issue, simply by wrapping the claim in ineffectiveness garb.
My colleague correctly observes that our scope of review in an appeal from judgment of sentence following probation revocation is limited to the validity of the revocation proceedings and the legality of the final judgment of sentence. Commonwealth v. Gilmore, 465 Pa. 202, 205, 348 A.2d 425, 427 (1975); Commonwealth v. Beasley, 391 Pa.Super. 287, 570 A.2d 1336 (1990). I also agree with Judge Kelly that appellate courts may consider, sua sponte, the issue of the legality of the sentence. What I find missing in my colleague’s careful and otherwise persuasive analysis is any bridge between Anderson’s claim that counsel was ineffective and any possible argument that the sentence imposed was illegal. I submit that this nexus does not exist and the contention must, accordingly, fail.
My colleague has utilized a footnote to excuse the fact that his analysis and disposition are totally unrelated to the issue presented by appellant. While conceding that Anderson has presented her argument under the mantle of ineffective assistance of counsel, the majority would review the claim as a challenge to the legality of the sentence! Majority Opinion at 314 n. 6. It bears repeating what issues were presented to the trial court in this case. After probation revocation sentencing, Anderson advanced the claim that the sentence was “very harsh.” There was no suggestion of illegality. In submitting her Concise Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal, Anderson asserted that she would raise only two issues: 1) failure to state on the record sufficient reasons for the sentence, and 2) the sentence was manifestly excessive. *325Again, there was no suggestion that the sentence was, in any manner, illegal.
I give appellate defense counsel credit for seeking to fashion an argument for appeal in ineffectiveness garb, realizing that proper issues had not been preserved. Pa.R.A.P. 302(a), 42 Pa.C.S.; Weir v. Weir, supra; Kryeski v. Schott Glass "Technologies, Inc., supra. A corollary to this waiver rule is that this Court should not, sua sponte, seek to raise and then decide issues not presented by the parties. Compare Wiegand v. Wiegand, 461 Pa. 482, 484, 337 A.2d 256, 257 (1975), on remand, 242 Pa.Super. 170, 363 A.2d 1215 (1976) (proper appellate function is exceeded when reviewing court seeks to decide issues not raised by the parties). To lay aside the ineffectiveness claim — the only issue raised by Appellant Anderson — and fashion an argument that the sentence was illegal — a position understandably not taken by experienced appellate defense counsel — violates all of the rules governing appellate review by this intermediate court. I cannot join in what I view to be a radical departure from our established procedures and rules.
I would return to the paperbacks which must govern this appeal. The claim, as articulated by Anderson, asks us to review a sentencing issue that neither was preserved by proper pleading in the trial court nor implicates the PCRA exception limited to sentences which exceed the maximum. I find the issue presented by Anderson to be waived and ineligible for review under the PCRA. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent.