Court Opinion

ID: 9701271
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:13:26.053148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:21.874387
License: Public Domain

CAPPY, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from the Opinion of the Court, but for different reasons than those expressed by Mr. Justice Zappala. I believe that the trial court’s decision cannot be affirmed because, contrary to the Majority’s characterization, the trial court made no explicit finding regarding Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim in the proceeding following this Court’s January 13, 1992 order. To some extent, the trial court’s failure to do so is understandable, as a brief history of this case will show.
On direct appeal, this Court affirmed Appellant’s conviction and sentence of death. Commonwealth v. Fahy, 512 Pa. 298, 516 A.2d 689 (1986). On November 21, 1991, Governor Casey signed an Execution Warrant; the execution was scheduled for January 14,1992. On January 13,1992, this Court entered a Per Curiam order stating:
The Petition for Stay of Execution and Appointment of Counsel is granted. The matter is remanded to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County pursuant to the Post-Conviction Relief Act for appointment of counsel and a hearing for consideration of the torture issue under Commonwealth v. Caldwell, 516 Pa. 441, 532 A.2d 813* 814 (1987).
On June 12, 1992, we denied a Petition to Clarify this order.
On remand, the trial court conducted a hearing and “analyze[d] the aggravating circumstance of torture in accordance with the definition stated in Commonwealth v. Caldwell.” (Trial Court Opinion at p. 6.) After reviewing the facts surrounding Appellant’s crime, the court concluded that
*551the jury properly found the aggravating circumstance of torture, that the facts of this case come within the definition of torture as defined by Caldwell and that defendant’s sentence of death should once again be affirmed by the Supreme Court.
(Id. at p. 7.) From this discussion, it is apparent that the trial court conducted a review of the sufficiency of the evidence to establish torture. The court did not, however, make any findings regarding any alleged ineffectiveness of trial counsel.
I believe that the trial court’s actions were understandable, given this Court’s remand order, which referred to Caldwell, and our subsequent refusal to clarify that order. Caldwell was a case in which this Court held that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding that the offense was committed by means of torture. We found that the evidence did not establish that “the defendant had a specific intent to inflict unnecessary pain, suffering, or both pain and suffering in addition to the specific intent to kill,” which was required under the definition set forth in Commonwealth v. Nelson, 514 Pa. 262, 523 A.2d 728 (1987), and Commonwealth v. Pursell, 508 Pa. 212, 495 A.2d 183 (1985).
The Majority concludes that Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim is disposed of by this Court’s finding on direct appeal that the evidence was sufficient to establish the aggravating circumstances. I disagree, for the two issues are distinct. This Court has held that, in order to establish a claim of ineffectiveness, the Appellant must show that the underlying claim is of arguable merit; that the particular course of conduct chosen by counsel did not have some reasonable basis designed to effectuate Appellant’s interests; and that counsel’s ineffective stewardship prejudiced him—i.e., that counsel’s ineffectiveness “had an adverse effect on the outcome of the proceedings.” Commonwealth v. Pierce, 515 Pa. 153, 162, 527 A.2d 973, 977 (1987). The essence of the Majority’s position is that Appellant cannot establish prejudice. However, the fact that this Court may have determined that the evidence presented was sufficient to support a finding of torture is a red herring; that finding does not lead inexorably *552to the conclusion that Appellant was not prejudiced. The claim here is that a jury, if given further instructions than were provided in this case, might not have found torture or, even if it found torture, might have weighed the aggravating and mitigating circumstances differently and rendered a sentence of life imprisonment rather than death. If either of those outcomes had resulted, this Court would not have been called upon to review the sufficiency of the evidence of torture. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(h). This is the heart of Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim.
This Court cannot review Appellant’s ineffectiveness claim until Appellant is given a hearing at which he may present facts to establish the three prongs of an ineffectiveness claim as set forth in Commonwealth v. Pierce, supra, 515 Pa. 153, 527 A.2d 973.1
Accordingly, I would remand to the trial court for a hearing into Appellant’s claim that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to' object to the trial court’s jury instruction on the aggravating circumstance of “torture,” where the instruction merely tracked the statutory language (“The offense was committed by means of torture,” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(8)) and did not provide a definition of “torture.”

. Appellant cannot establish an ineffectiveness claim by relying solely upon Commonwealth v. Nelson, supra, because Nelson—which first introduced the requirement that the trial court give an instruction defining torture—was announced four years after Appellant’s trial. This Court has consistently held that counsel cannot be found ineffective for failing to anticipate changes in the law. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Johnson, 516 Pa. 407, 532 A.2d 796, 802 (1987); Commonwealth v. Garrity, 509 Pa. 46, 500 A.2d 1106, 1111 (1985); Commonwealth v. Triplett, 476 Pa. 83, 381 A.2d 877, 881 (1977). Because "[w]e cannot impose upon trial counsel the qualities of a seer ..., we examine counsel’s stewardship under the standards as they existed at the time of his action.” Triplett, 476 Pa. at 89, 381 A.2d at 881. The "severity of the sentence imposed” is not, as Mr. Justice Zappala suggests, cause for abandonment of this principle, for we have applied it in the past even where it resulted in affirming a sentence of death. See Commonwealth v. Yarris, 519 Pa. 571, 549 A.2d 513, 530-31 (1988), cert. denied, 491 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 3201, 105 L.Ed.2d 708 (1989).