Court Opinion

ID: 9759378
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:14:31.157427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.641513
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. There was no reasonable basis in this case for trial counsel’s failure to request an instruction on involuntary manslaughter.
In Commonwealth v. Polimeni, 474 Pa. 430, 378 A.2d 1189 (1977), this Court addressed the question of whether the trial court in a homicide case could refuse to give a requested jury instruction on involuntary manslaughter. A majority of this Court concluded that Polimeni was entitled to the requested charge on involuntary manslaughter even though he was not indicted for involuntary manslaughter. We *120therefore reversed the judgment of sentence and remanded for a new trial.
Involuntary manslaughter is defined by the Crimes Code, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 2504(a) (1973).
“(a) General rule. — A person is guilty of involuntary manslaughter when as a direct result of the doing of an unlawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, or the doing of a lawful act in a reckless or grossly negligent manner, he causes the death of another person.”
Had the jury believed appellant’s version of the facts presented in this case, it could have rationally concluded that appellant was guilty of the crime of involuntary manslaughter. Because appellant’s trial counsel failed to request such a jury instruction, however, the jury was not informed that involuntary manslaughter was a. permissible verdict in this case.
We have often said that counsel’s strategy must have some reasonable basis designed to effectuate the client’s interests. The majority strains to find a reasonable basis for trial counsel’s trial strategy. The majority says that if trial counsel had sought and obtained a charge on involuntary manslaughter, the option of an outright acquittal would have been eliminated. The majority also says that “the jury’s alternatives were confined to either finding a malicious killing (i. e., murder), an intentional killing resulting from provocation and passion or an acquittal.” However, this Court has said:
“True, if the prosecution has not established beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the offense charged, and if no lesser offense instruction is offered, the jury must as a theoretical matter, return a verdict of acquittal. But the defendant is entitled to a lesser offense instruction — in this context or any other — precisely because [the defendant] should not be exposed to the substantial risk that the jury’s practice will diverge from theory. Where one of the elements of the offense charged remains in *121doubt, but the defendant is plainly guilty of some offense, the jury is likely to resolve its doubts in favor of conviction.
Keeble v. United States, 412 U.S. 205, 212-13, 93 S.Ct. 1993, 1997-98, 36 L.Ed.2d 844 (1973) (emphasis in original); see Commonwealth v. Thomas, 403 Pa. 553, 170 A.2d 112 (1961). The jury should not be forced to choose between a murder or voluntary manslaughter verdict and an acquittal when, properly instructed, the jury would find the defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter.” (Emphasis in original.) Commonwealth v. Garcia, 474 Pa. 449, 466-67, 378 A.2d 1199, 1208 (1977).
I can therefore perceive of no reasonable basis for allowing this case to go to the jury without requesting that the jury be instructed regarding the crime of involuntary manslaughter. Indeed, appellant’s entire case pointed toward such a verdict: she admitted that she held the rifle that fired the fatal shot; she did not contend that she shot in self-defense. She contended only that she was not aware that the rifle was loaded; that she intended only to frighten her husband; and that the rifle discharged when her husband grabbed it.
The prosecution argues that at the time of appellant’s second trial — May 9 through May 17, 1977, appellant “ . . . had no right to have the court charge the jury on involuntary manslaughter . . . ” because Commonwealth v. Polimeni, supra had not yet been decided (Polimeni was decided on October 7, 1977). According to the prosecution, appellant’s trial counsel acted reasonably in relying on the then existing law; that raising appellant’s present claim at that time would have been fruitless, and that counsel is not required to pursue a fruitless claim.
Appellant’s trial, however, took place more than eighteen months after our decision in Commonwealth v. Moore, 463 Pa. 317, 344 A.2d 850 (1975). Had appellant’s trial counsel been familiar with Moore, it would have been apparent that at least four members of this Court had expressed the view at that time that failure to instruct on involuntary man*122slaughter, if requested, where that verdict would be supported by the evidence, constituted reversible error.
“Thus, if a jury, giving credence to a defendant’s version of an encounter could find that defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter, fundamental fairness dictates the consolidation, upon request, of that indictment with the murder and voluntary manslaughter indictments as possible jury verdicts. As noted in Commonwealth v. Thomas, supra, the failure to consolidate leads to a refusal to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter. In those instances where an involuntary manslaughter verdict would be supported by the evidence, the failure to so acquaint the jury prevents it from operating with full knowledge of the relevant law and precludes the defendant from having a fair trial.” Id., 463 Pa. at 322, 344 A.2d at 852-853. (Opinion of Justice (now Chief Justice) Eagen, joined by O’Brien, J.)
Mr. Justice Roberts stated in a concurring opinion,
“In my view, the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter, as requested by appellant, constitutes reversible error.
It is axiomatic that a trial court is required, at least when the defendant so requests, to illuminate all relevant legal issues for the jury and, in particular, to instruct the jury on every verdict which it would be permissible for it to return.” Id., 463 Pa. at 323-324, 344 A.2d at 853. Mr. Justice Pomeroy, also concurred, saying,
“I concur in the decision of the Court that the trial court erred in refusing appellant’s motion to consolidate for trial the murder and involuntary manslaughter indictments. Furthermore, I agree with my brother Roberts in his separate opinion that the failure of the trial court to charge as requested on involuntary manslaughter was also error.” Id., 463 Pa. at 336, 344 A.2d at 860.
Thus it is clear, contrary to the prosecution’s contention, that appellant’s trial counsel should have known at the time *123of her trial that a majority of this Court felt that to deny a request for a jury charge on involuntary manslaughter constituted reversible error, at least where there were facts in evidence on which the jury could have rationally based a verdict of guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Trial counsel’s failure to request such a charge, especially in light of the facts presented by the defense in the instant case, all of which pointed toward a finding that appellant shot and killed her husband while attempting to frighten him with a rifle she believed to be unloaded, facts which, if believed by the jury, would ,have allowed it to rationally find appellant guilty of involuntary manslaughter.