Court Opinion

ID: 9697462
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 19:17:28.224704+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:32.793406
License: Public Domain

*548POPOVICH, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
While I join in the majority’s resolution of appellant’s first and third issues, I disagree with the majority’s determination that post-verdict motion counsel was not ineffective for failing to insure that appellant received the benefit of a jury instruction on character evidence in accordance with Commonwealth v. Neely, 522 Pa. 236, 561 A.2d 1 (1989). Rather, I would find that post-verdict motion counsel was ineffective in failing to preserve that issue for review.
Counsel is ineffective when there is merit to the underlying claim, the course chosen by counsel does not have a reasonable basis and the defendant shows prejudice. Commonwealth v. Graham, 522 Pa. 115, 117, 560 A.2d 129, 130 (1989). At trial, appellant presented several witnesses who attested to appellant’s good reputation in the community. Trial counsel requested the lower court to instruct the jury that evidence of good character may, in and of itself, create a reasonable doubt. However, the trial court, relying upon this Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Neely, 372 Pa.Super. 519, 539 A.2d 1317 (1988), reversed 522 Pa. 236, 561 A.2d 1 (1989), stated that the law on character evidence had been changed and refused the instruction.
Trial counsel raised the issue of whether the court properly instructed the jury on character evidence in his post-verdict motions. However, appellant retained new counsel who filed post-verdict motions nunc pro tunc on December 9, 1988. Therein, counsel failed to raise the jury instruction issue. It is significant to note that our Supreme Court granted allocatur for Neely, supra, on August 23, 1988, over three months prior to the filing of the post-verdict motions nunc pro tunc. Allocatur granted in Commonwealth v. Neely, 519 Pa. 664, 548 A.2d 254 (Table, 1988). Further, our Supreme Court handed down its decision in Neely, supra, on June 28, 1989, over five months prior to the lower court’s final adjudication of appellant’s post-verdict motions on December 7, 1989.
*549In Neely, supra, our Supreme Court stated unequivocally that “[a] criminal defendant must receive a jury charge that evidence of good character (reputation) may, in and of itself, (by itself or alone) create a reasonable doubt of guilt and, thus, require a verdict of not guilty.” See also Commonwealth v. Scott, 496 Pa. 188, 195, 436 A.2d 607, 611 n. 1 (1981); Commonwealth v. Cleary, 135 Pa. 64, 80, 19 A. 1017, 1018 (1890). Instantly, the lower court, relying upon our Neely decision, instructed the jury:
By further defense, the defendant also asked you to consider his character. He presented witnesses to attest to his good character, he being a decent, law-abiding citizen. How do you deal with that evidence? It is important that you understand that evidence. From time immemorial, historically, a good reputation has been regarded as one of the principle assets of a person. If a person has lived awhile, earned a good reputation in the community amongst people who know him best, the law permits him to avail himself of that reputation in evidence in support of his innocence when he’s accused of a crime. Evidence of an accused[’sj good reputation then is to be considered by you along with other evidence in the case. It may, in combination with other evidence create that reasonable doubt, and if you find that, the defendant is to be acquitted. But reputation evidence, like all other evidence must be assessed by you and evaluated by you. Reputation evidence then is substantive evidence which like any other testimony must be weighed and tested and considered by you with all of the other evidence in the case. You must decide for yourselves whether to accept that testimony, what weight to give to it, and whether it raises a reasonable doubt in your mind that a man enjoying that reputation would commit such a crime.
However, Ladies and gentlemen, if the Commonwealth has shown to you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of these crimes, even though he has a good reputation, he is not to go free simply because of it. *550So the focus here is whether or not the Commonwealth has proven its case to you beyond a reasonable doubt. (Emphasis added).
Clearly, the trial court’s instruction did not properly advise the jury on the use of character evidence. Neely, 561 A.2d at 3; Pa.S.S.Crim.J.I. 3.06. Thus, the claim underlying appellant’s assertion of post-verdict motion counsel’s ineffectiveness is meritorious. In other words, post-verdict motion counsel’s failure to preserve this issue was error.
Having found merit in appellant’s underlying claim, we turn to the issue of whether counsel’s actions were reasonable. In the case sub judice, I cannot imagine a reasonable explanation for counsel’s failure to insure that this issue was preserved for appellate review. Although counsel cannot be expected to foresee changes in the law, Commonwealth v. Triplett, 476 Pa. 83, 381 A.2d 877 (1977), counsel must be expected to preserve an issue for appeal when the state of the law governing that issue is in an obvious state of flux.1 The law regarding character evidence remained unchanged in Pennsylvania jurisprudence for almost one hundred years before our decision in Neely, supra. Further, the Bar must remember that our court is the intermediate appellate court of this Commonwealth, and, therefore, our Neely decision could not serve to overrule a century of jurisprudence unless or until it was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.2 Therefore, it was unreason*551able for counsel to fail to preserve this issue. This is especially true given the fact that our Supreme Court filed its Neely decision over five months before the lower court rendered its decision on appellant’s nunc pro tunc post-verdict motions.
In Commonwealth v. Schultz, 335 Pa.Super. 306, 484 A.2d 146 (1984), we were faced with a similar situation to that presented herein. In Schultz, 484 A.2d at 148, we ruled there could be no reasonable basis for counsel’s failure to preserve this issue of an erroneous jury instruction. In so doing, we stated:
We have chosen to grant a new trial, rather than remand for an evidentiary hearing on counsel’s ineffectiveness because we ourselves feel that counsel's failure to object to the lower court’s instruction was totally unsubstantiated. In light of our strong sentiments, we believe that a remand for an evidentiary hearing would be a waste of precious judicial time.
Schultz, 484 A.2d at 148 n. 4.
Undoubtedly, appellant was prejudiced by the lack of a proper instruction since the jury was never informed that evidence of good character alone may be sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt. Therefore, I would also remand this case for a new trial based on the trial court’s erroneous jury instruction and post-verdict motion counsel’s failure to preserve that issue for review. See Commonwealth v. Bannerman, 525 Pa. 264, 579 A.2d 1295 (1990) (Per curiam order remanding case for new trial due to court’s failure to comply with Neely, 561 A.2d 1).
*552In sum, I join in the opinion of the majority, except as set forth herein. Accordingly, I would remand this case for a new trial not only for the reasons explained by the majority but also because of post-verdict motion counsel’s ineffectiveness.
ROWLEY, President Judge, joins this concurring and dissenting Opinion.

. Counsel’s error is readily apparent when one considers that allocatur was granted in Neely, supra, three months prior to the filing nunc pro tunc of post-verdict motions, and our high court rendered its Neely decision over five months before appellant’s post-verdict motions were denied. I believe effective counsel would have continued to preserve the character evidence issue given the fact that allocatur had been granted months before counsel filed the nunc pro tunc motions. Further, motions counsel certainly should have alerted the trial court to our Supreme Court’s Neely decision which reversed the very basis of the court’s jury instruction. Cf., Commonwealth v. Dunkle, 385 Pa.Super. 317, 323, 561 A.2d 5, 8 (1989) (changes in decisional law which occur during litigation will generally be applied to cases pending on appeal).

. The majority correctly notes that in our Neely decision, we did not intend to change the then-existing law. However, the practical effect *551of our decision was to change the law, as evidenced by our expressly overruling Commonwealth v. Belmonte, 349 Pa.Super. 1, 502 A.2d 1241 (1985), alloc. granted 511 Pa. 368, 514 A.2d 1369 (1986), Commonwealth v. Vander Weele, 356 Pa.Super. 152, 514 A.2d 189 (1986), Commonwealth v. Schultz, 335 Pa.Super. 306, 484 A.2d 146 (1984) and Commonwealth v. Arenella, 306 Pa.Super. 119, 452 A.2d 243 (1982), to the extent that those cases held the “in and of itself” language was required. Further, the trial court sub judice believed the law regarding instructions on character evidence had been altered by our Neely decision.