Court Opinion

ID: 9760173
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:42:06.897493+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:08.820992
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
DONOHUE, J.:
¶ 1 I respectfully dissent from the Majority’s conclusion that counsel for Appellant Lamont Bookard (“Bookard”) had a reasonable or strategic basis for failing to request an alibi instruction in this case, as the record on appeal reflects instead that counsel’s failure to do so resulted from her misconception that she had failed to produce sufficient evidence to establish an alibi defense. Moreover, counsel’s contention that she did not request an alibi instruction because it would have permitted the Commonwealth to respond with rebuttal evidence is also unsupported, as her testimony at the evidentiary hearing on remand suggests that no such rebuttal evidence in fact existed; to the extent she believed otherwise, she misunderstood the nature of the evidence at issue. Accordingly, I would grant Bookard’s requested PCRA relief in the form of a new trial, based upon ineffective assistance of counsel.
¶ 2 When evaluating a challenge to the reasonableness of a decision by trial counsel, we must determine whether counsel had “some reasonable basis designed to effectuate his client’s interests.” Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 586 Pa. 366, 389, 894 A.2d 716, 730 (2006). At trial, Book-ard’s counsel presented the following evidence:
• Bookard testified that on March 23, 2000, he had borrowed the automobile of Marvin McClain (“McClain”), who was at work in South Philadelphia. N.T., 5/2/01, at 150-51.
• Bookard further testified that on the afternoon of the 23rd he was at his mother’s home (on North Croskey Street in North Philadelphia) along with John Rosser, the victim of the homicide, and LaTonya Coles, his former girlfriend. Id. at 154-55. Book-ard testified that Tyrone Sydnor came to the . home and asked to speak to Rosser. Id. at 156. After Rosser and Sydnor talked, Bookard stated that Rosser told him that he (Rosser) was going to rob a craps game, and asked Bookard to join him — but Bookard declined. Id. at 156-57.
• According to Bookard’s testimony, Rosser left the home at approximately 3:00 p.m. Id. at 157. Bookard testified that he remained at his mother’s home with Coles prior to leaving to pick up McClain. Id. at 159-60. He picked up McClain at approximately 4:30 p.m. Id. at 160.
• Ronnicka Davis (“Davis”), who lives on North Croskey Street, testified for the defense that she saw Rosser on the afternoon of May 23, 2000, and that Rosser left the neighborhood in his own vehicle. Id. at 181. Davis further testified that she saw Bookard and Coles leave thirty or forty-five minutes after Rosser left. Id. at 186. She stated that Bookard and Coles left the neighborhood in a blue car. Id. at 187.
• McClain testified that he lent his car, a blue Chevrolet, to Bookard, and that Bookard and Coles picked him up at his South Philadelphia place of em*1010ployment at 4:35 p.m. driving his (McClain’s) car. Id. at 127,129.
¶ 3 As this summary of the evidence presented on behalf of Bookard makes clear, McClain’s testimony regarding Bookard’s whereabouts after the crime did not, by itself, establish an alibi. Instead, the alibi defense was established through Bookard’s own testimony that he ivas in transit from his mother’s home to McClain’s place of employment at the time of the crimes.1 The testimony of Davis and McClain tended to corroborate Book-ard’s testimony by providing confirmation that he left his mother’s house shortly before 4:00 p.m. and arrived at McClain’s place of employment just after 4:30 p.m.
¶ 4 At trial, however, Bookard’s counsel displayed what can at best be described as general confusion regarding the evidence presented to the jury, as she never requested an alibi instruction and in fact, appeared to deny that any alibi defense even existed. For example, at the outset of McClain’s testimony and in the presence of the jury, counsel indicated that McClain was not an alibi witness because the crimes occurred 16 minutes before Book-ard arrived to pick him up.2 This assertion was in apparent disregard for Book-ard’s own testimony'' that he was in transit from his mother’s home at the time of the crimes. At the subsequent jury instruction conference held before the close of the defense’s evidence, counsel then failed to request an alibi instruction based upon her apparent misapprehension that she had not presented sufficient evidence for an alibi defense.3
¶ 5 This Court clearly recognized counsel’s confusion in this regard, as we remanded the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on precisely this issue — namely whether counsel had any reasonable or strategic basis for not requesting an alibi instruction. Commonwealth v. Bookard, 909 A.2d 866 (Pa.Super.2006) (unpublished memorandum). In remanding the case to the trial court for an evi-dentiary hearing, we specifically acknowledged counsel’s amorphous and seemingly contradictory explanations at trial for not requesting an alibi instruction, noting that “[rjather than clarifying whether the defense centered on an alibi defense, [counsel’s] remarks acknowledge such a defense, but indicate that for some reason to which we are not privy she decided to abandon that position.” Id. at *6.
¶ 6 At the evidentiary hearing on remand, counsel’s testimony served only to create more confusion on the issue on which we sought clarification. She testi-*1011fiecl that presenting an alibi defense would have been problematic because it would have highlighted the possibility that Book-ard could have driven to McClain’s place of employment from the crime scene and still have committed the crimes, thus distracting the jury from the strength of her defense (i.e., McClain’s testimony):
As I recall, I thought it [the site of the robbery] was much further away [from the location where appellant picked up McClain] and there was some evidence that it was not very far away. That there was a way to get there that was a fairly quick way. You could get from 3800 Reno Street to Lawrence Street [in South Philadelphia] and it wasn’t going to be, you know, a 10 mile drive, and that you wouldn’t encounter tons of traffic at 4:30, I think it was a weekday.4 I was concerned that because they weren’t close enough in time, 4, 4:15, 4:35, and the distance wasn’t great enough that I was really going to miss the alibi. I wasn’t going to make an alibi and by asking for an alibi instruction, I was going to call attention to the inadequacy of the time match up and draw attention away from, what I thought to be, the very adequate testimony of Mr. McClain, that [appellant], when he picked him up was perfectly calm, normal, not upset, not injured, was perfectly fine and didn’t look like he had just been involved in a robbery in which somebody died.
N.T., 1/18/07, pp. 26-27.
¶ 7 From this testimony, the Majority concludes that counsel’s decision not to request an alibi instruction and to instead focus on McClain’s testimony that Bookard arrived calm and unflustered at his place of employment 15-20 minutes after the crimes were committed was a reasonable strategy. In my view, precisely the opposite is true, since McClain’s testimony regarding Bookard’s arrival at his place of employment at 4:35 p.m. unquestionably begs the question for the jury: Where was Bookard at the time of the crimes? The evidence presented established that Book-ard was at his mother’s house until he left with his former girlfriend in a blue car to pick up McClain, and that as a result he had an alibi5 — namely that he was in tran*1012sit (in a blue vehicle) from his mother’s home to McClain’s place of employment at the time of the crimes which were, according to the Commonwealth, perpetrated by two male occupants of a black vehicle. N.T., 5/1/01, at 126-27. Bookard was entitled to an alibi instruction, as the jury should have been given a structured opportunity, via an alibi instruction, to find that Bookard was at home and then in transit, and that this was the reason that he arrived at McClain’s place of employment calm and unflustered at 4:35 p.m.
¶ 8 Instead, at the evidentiary hearing counsel testified to a strategy predicated upon her continuing misconception that (1) she had failed to produce sufficient evidence to establish an alibi defense, and (2) that Bookard’s defense depended entirely on McClain’s testimony, which it clearly did not. As such, I discern no basis in the record to conclude that counsel made a conscious decision to decline to seek an alibi instruction based upon a reasoned evaluation of her concerns. Nothing in the record on appeal supports counsel’s suggestion that requesting an alibi instruction would have drawn the jury’s attention away from McClain’s testimony, since McClain’s testimony that Bookard arrived calm and unflustered at his place of employment does not in any way contradict Bookard’s testimony that he was in transit at the time of the crimes.6 To the contrary, the jury was certainly capable of understanding that the components of the defense were entirely complementary: (1) Bookard was elsewhere at the time of the crime (i.e., in transit from his mother’s home to pick up McClain), and (2) his calm demeanor upon arrival to pick up McClain just minutes after the crimes occurred showed that he had not just been involved in a robbery or murder. To the extent that counsel’s strategy assumed to the contrary, it was unreasonable.
¶ 9 At the evidentiary hearing on remand, counsel testified to a second strategic reason for not requesting an alibi instruction — she did not want to characterize her defense as an alibi defense because it would have permitted the Commonwealth to present rebuttal evidence. N.T., 1/18/07, at 32. Initially she claimed that she could not recall the specific nature of the rebuttal evidence, but when pressed to remember she identified McClain’s time card indicating that he may have left work at 3:23 p.m. — more than an hour before he testified that Bookard picked him up. N.T., 1/18/07, at 32-33, 39-40. The time card in question, however, plainly estab*1013lished that McClain left work at 4:20 p.m., and the notation “3:23” on the card referred not to the time McClain left work, but rather to the relevant date of March 23 (the date of the crimes in question). Counsel’s apparent concern over this time card as rebuttal evidence did not, therefore, establish any reasonable basis for her failure to request an alibi instruction. Moreover, since McClain’s time card had already been introduced at trial and since counsel for Bookard and the Commonwealth both questioned McClain regarding its contents during his testimony, N.T., 5/2/01, id. at 128, 140, the time card was already in evidence and thus would not have been rebuttal evidence. Therefore, this explanation (i.e., fear of rebuttal evidence) does not establish any reasonable or strategic basis for failing to request an alibi instruction.
¶ 10 In its written opinion that we are reviewing on this appeal, prepared subsequent to the evidentiary hearing on remand, the learned trial court implicitly acknowledged what the Majority here refuses to do — that counsel’s testimony at the evidentiary hearing provided no reasonable basis for her failure to request an alibi instruction, and that Bookard’s testimony, corroborated by that of other defense witnesses, created the alibi. To find a reasonable basis for counsel’s conduct, the trial court went back to the trial transcript, recognized Bookard’s alibi testimony, and skillfully identified potential rebuttal evidence never referenced at the evidentiary hearing on remand. Specifically, the trial court pointed out that the victim’s mother Glenda Birke (“Birke”) testified in the Commonwealth’s case that Bookard told her that he could not have killed her son because he was at work at the time of the killing (i.e., on March 23 at around 4:15 p.m.). Trial Court Opinion, 7/16/07, at 4 (citing N.T., 5/2/01, at 54-56). Birke further testified that two other individuals (her son Norman and Bookard’s cousin Rasheed West) heard Bookard make this statement.7 Id. Birke’s testimony was apparently offered in anticipation of and in contradiction to Bookard’s alibi defense which Bookard’s counsel later developed in the defense case. In its written opinion, the trial court indicates that the Commonwealth could have, but did not, call either Birke’s son Norman or Rasheed West as rebuttal witnesses to contradict Bookard’s “in transit” testimony.8 Trial Court Opinion, 7/16/07, at 4.
¶ 11 Nothing in the record on appeal, however, proves (or even suggests) that counsel ever even recognized that the evidence supported an alibi, let alone that counsel considered the possible rebuttal testimony of Birke’s son Norman or Rash-eed West in deciding not to request an alibi instruction. Counsel did not articulate this rationale as a basis for her decision, either at trial or the evidentiary hearing on remand, and thus there is no basis on this record to conclude that counsel in fact had the strategy the trial court generated from the trial transcript. In my view, it is likely that an experienced trial judge could review the record in most cases and, in retrospect, concoct a theory as to why *1014decisions by counsel were made, e.g., a foregone piece of documentary evidence was (probably) more confusing than helpful; the abandoned witness’ credibility was (probably) too easily impeached. The inquiry on a Sixth Amendment claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, however, must forego “the distorting effects of hindsight” and instead be based solely upon the actual strategic decisions of trial counsel. See, e.g., Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) (“A fair assessment of attorney performance requires ... [the court to] evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the , time.”); Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365, 386-387, 106 S.Ct. 2574, 91 L.Ed.2d 305 (1986) (hindsight cannot be used to supply a reasonable reason for the decisions of counsel); Commonwealth v. Marshall, 534 Pa. 488, 505-06, 633 A.2d 1100, 1108 (1993) (“We find that counsel’s answers [at the PCRA evidentiary hearing] demonstrate that he did not have a reasonable basis to effectuate appellant’s interests.”). As one federal court has described it, “courts should not conjure up tactical decisions an attorney could have made, but plainly did not.... Tolerance of tactical miscalculations is one thing; fabrication of tactical excuses is quite another.” Griffin v. Warden, 970 F.2d 1355, 1358-59 (4th Cir.1992); see also Harris v. Reed, 894 F.2d 871, 878 (7th Cir.1990) (“Just as a reviewing court should not second guess the strategic decisions of counsel with the benefit of hindsight, it should also not construct strategic defenses which counsel does not offer.”).
¶ 12 Because I view the record as establishing counsel’s clear misunderstanding of the evidence and the requisites of an alibi defense, I believe the trial court erred in finding that counsel possessed a reasonable strategic basis for her failure to request an alibi instruction.9 Consequently, it is necessary to proceed to consider whether the failure to request an alibi instruction was sufficiently prejudicial to warrant relief under the PCRA. Here, counsel’s unexplained failure to request an alibi instruction left the jury without proper guidance to consider the totality of the evidence, and essentially deprived appellant of a defense firmly established by the evidence presented at trial. See, e.g., Mi-lcell, 556 Pa. at 518, 729 A.2d at 570-571; Roxberry, 529 Pa. at 166, 602 A.2d at 829. Therefore, I am compelled to conclude that *1015counsel’s omission constituted constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel, upon which appellant is entitled to post conviction relief.
¶ 13 Accordingly, I dissent from the decision of the Majority and would reverse the order denying post conviction relief and remand this case for a new trial.

. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Roxberry, 529 Pa. 160, 164-165, 602 A.2d 826, 828 (1992) (emphasizing that (1) "[t]here is no minimum or threshold quantum of physical separation necessary for a defense to constitute an alibi, so long as the separation makes it impossible for the defendant to have committed the crime”; and (2) that an alibi instruction is appropriate even when the "alibi defense had been presented solely by the unsupported testimony of the defendant”).

. [Counsel for the Commonwealth]: Mr. McClain, when did you learn that you were going to be an alibi witness in this case?
[Counsel for Bookard] Your Honor, if I may, he’s not exactly an alibi witness. The time of the crime is 4:19. He shows up 4:35, not really an alibi witness.
[The Court] Is that an objection?
[Counsel for Bookard] It is, Your Honor.
[The Court] Overruled.
N.T., 5/2/01, at 132 (emphasis added).

.[Counsel for the Commonwealth]: Does counsel want an alibi charge in this matter? There was no—
[Counsel for Bookard]: It’s really not.
[Counsel for the Commonwealth]: I want the record to reflect that for the future.
[The Court]: She said it’s not alibi. So therefore no reason to give an alibi charge.
N.T., 5/2/01, at 196 (emphasis added).

. In its footnote # 1, the Majority cites to two mapping websites in support of its contention that McClain's place of employment was eight and one half miles from the scene of the crimes — by way of the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia. Majority Opinion at 1007-OS. The Majority further contends that "it was certainly not impossible for Bookard to have traveled that distance in 30 or 35 minutes; in fact, notwithstanding traffic, construction, or accident delays, he could have driven that distance in sixteen minutes." Id. My review of the record has not disclosed any reference to specific distances or approximate driving times between McClain's place of employment and the scene of the crimes. Likewise, the record does not appear to include any references to either www.mapquest.com or www.maps.google.com. In deciding issues on appeal, this Court must resolve them based solely upon the basis of facts that were before the lower court when it rendered its decision and subsequently contained in the record on appeal. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Rainey, 593 Pa. 67, 99 n. 20, 928 A.2d 215, 235 n. 20 (2007); Kozura v. Tulpehocken Area School Dist., 568 Pa. 64, 73 n. 9, 791 A.2d 1169, 1173 n. 9 (2002); Commonwealth v. Foster, 764 A.2d 1076, 1084 n. 3 (Pa.Super.2000), appeal denied, 566 Pa. 658, 782 A.2d 542 (2001). Moreover, without specific reference to traffic conditions on the date and time of the events in question, internet mapping results are totally speculative. One traffic accident or any construction activity renders the time estimates useless.

. Counsel's testimony at the evidentiary hearing on remand is abundantly clear that Book-ard's explanation of his whereabouts at the time of the crimes was not part of her analysis in deciding to forego an alibi defense:
Q. Now, getting back to the facts of the crime. Do you know, was your defense in *1012this case, did you present an alibi defense in this case?
A. That, I did not present what I termed an "alibi defense.” I presented evidence that around the time, although not the exact time, but around the time of the crime or 15 to 20 minutes after the crime, the robbery, that my client was picking up a friend of his, Mr. McClain, who was also a friend of the deceased, at the place where Mr. McClain worked.
N.T., 1/18/07, at 17-18.

. In addition, a conscious decision on counsel's part to decline an alibi instruction would have required her to disregard the particularly damaging consequences to Bookard's defense from such a strategy. Our Supreme Court has instructed that where there is sufficient evidence in the record to establish an alibi defense, the defendant is clearly entitled to an alibi instruction for at least two reasons: (1) "an alibi defense, either standing alone or together with other evidence, may be sufficient to leave in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt that might not otherwise exist,” and (2) to "alleviate the danger that the jurors might impermissibly view a failure to prove the defense as a sign of defendant’s guilt.” Commonwealth v. Mikell, 556 Pa. 509, 517, 729 A.2d 566, 570 (1999). The latter concern is of particular significance here because the only apparent reason for calling Bookard to testify on his own behalf was to set up the alibi defense.

. The Commonwealth also called Vincent Marsico (“Marsico"), the human resource manager at Bookard's prior employer, in its case-in-chief to disprove the suggestion that Bookard was at work on March 23. Marsico testified that Bookard's employment had lasted only a single day — March 22, and thus he was not at work on March 23. N.T., 5/2/01, at 92.

. One may question whether these witnesses would have been or should have been allowed to testify in rebuttal, since their testimony merely corroborated Birke's testimony already offered in the Commonwealth's case-in-chief and therefore was arguably cumulative and repetitive.

. The Commonwealth argues that counsel’s decision to forgo an alibi instruction was reasonable under the guidance provided by the Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 586 Pa. 366, 894 A.2d 716 (2006). In Hawkins, the Supreme Court found that there was a "detailed record ... of trial counsel’s rationale for consciously declining to seek the instruction,” and held that counsel’s explanation expressed "a reasonable basis for declining, as a tactical matter, to avail himself of a particular jury instruction to which his client unequivocally was entitled.” Id., 586 Pa. at 390-391, 894 A.2d at 730 (emphasis supplied). Specifically, the Court noted:
[C]ounsel explained that in his twenty years of experience he had come to the conclusion that where alibi testimony is weak, or is predicated on the defendant’s testimony alone, calling attention to that testimony explicitly as alibi evidence disserves the defendant’s interests. Notably, he did not suggest that such testimony itself serves no purpose, nor did he suggest that counsel should not highlight alibi evidence for the jury in closing. He simply expressed his discomfort, under the circumstances at bar, with the expectations a specific alibi instruction might raise in the minds of the venire, and explained that it was his practice to avoid disappointing such expectations where possible.
Id., 586 Pa. at 390, 894 A.2d at 730.
While it was evident in Hawkins that defense counsel had carefully considered possible costs and benefits of the instruction in light of the evidence presented at trial, the record on appeal in this case, as explained hereinabove, does not reflect the same consideration.