Court Opinion

ID: 9754494
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:02:39.206164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:54.148558
License: Public Domain

NIX, Chief Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I agree that a finding of murder in the first degree on this record was entirely appropriate and that verdict is properly sustained. I do not agree with the affirmance of the sentence of death in this case. Whether under the standard for testing the effectiveness of counsel in this *514Commonwealth as set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) (which I believe to be more appropriate), or under Commonwealth ex rel. Washington v. Maroney, 427 Pa. 599, 235 A.2d 349 (1967) (which had been the test in this jurisdiction), I am of the view that counsel’s failure to object to the line of questioning by the prosecution during the sentencing hearing, see majority opinion at 838-839, constitutes ineffective assistance.
The thrust of this questioning was to demonstrate the appellant was beyond rehabilitation. The Commonwealth in its argument in support of the death sentence, which is set forth by the majority, slip op. at 26, used the testimony elicited from this questioning as its basis. Such a conclusion is of vital significance for a determination as to whether the life or death sentence should be imposed. The majority concedes that an objection should have been made but regrettably fails to recognize the impact this testimony had on a possible finding of a mitigating circumstance. I believe that this dereliction requires this Court to either vacate the death sentence and impose a sentence of life or at the very least remand the cause for a new sentencing hearing with competent counsel.1 It may very well have been that if this line of questioning had been forestalled by an alert counsel’s objection, “... the decision reached would reasonably likely have been different ...” as to the finding of no mitigating circumstance.2 Strickland v. Washington, supra 466 U.S. at 696, 104 S.Ct. at 2069.

. Although section 9711(h)(2) could be interpreted to foreclose the alternative of remanding for a new sentencing hearing, I do not believe that such a result is necessarily mandated. In any event, the instant sentence of death should be vacated.

. The egregiousness of this error is exacerbated by the fact that three aggravating circumstances were permitted to be argued to the jury when only one was justified under the evidence. Even though the jury discarded one of the improper aggravating circumstances and the majority now acknowledges the invalidity of the other, the jury was improperly given a distorted view of the heinousness of the crime. While this record would justify a death sentence, the result should not be obtained through a distortion of the record.