Court Opinion

ID: 9785231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:11:19.176703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:12.768121
License: Public Domain

Justice SAYLOR,
concurring and dissenting.
Similar to Commonwealth v. Steele, 599 Pa. 341, 961 A.2d 786 (2008), the majority finds a substantial portion of Appellant’s guilt-phase claims to be waived for failure to file an adequate brief.
I am sensitive to the concern, expressed by Justices in other settings, that some of the testing of the limits of this Court’s rules governing the presentation of written arguments may be strategically motivated. See, e.g., id. at 421-28, 961 A.2d at 834-38 (Castille, C.J., concurring). I also remain cognizant, however, of a repeated refrain expressed by counsel that the character and application of our rules continues to shift and change, such that it is impossible to predict which arguments will garner this Court’s review and which will be deemed unworthy of consideration. See, e.g., id. at 429, 961 A.2d at 838-39 (Saylor, J., dissenting) (quoting the contention presented on behalf of a capital defendant that “[i]t is respectfully *352submitted that this Court’s recent opinions regarding pleading and proof in capital PCRA cases are confusing, inconsistent and constantly shifting.”). Here, for example, I cannot discern any material distinction between the framing of claims of appellate counsel ineffectiveness in several of Appellant’s guilt-phase claims deemed unworthy of this Court’s consideration and the framing of the penalty argument upon which the majority directs a remand.1 In point of fact, it seems to me that none of Appellant’s layered claims meets the Court’s briefing requirements as applied to most of the claims in this case and in Steele.
Two conclusions flow readily from this observation if it is accepted as a premise. First, the application of the briefing requirements is being administered unevenly (since some non-compliant claims are being reviewed and some are not, without any actual or apparent explanation for the differential treatment). I believe this phenomenon is now occurring not only within the confines of individual cases, but also, on an inter-case basis. Second, since appellate post-conviction counsel in this and many other cases cannot seem to raise layered claims meeting this Court’s requirements, to the degree those requirements are reasonable and well-established, counsel are patently ineffective. This observation seems particularly pro*353blematic, since a majority of the Court now appears to be suggesting that there effectively can be no state-level redress for such deficient stewardship. See Commonwealth v. Pitts, 603 Pa. 1, 9-10 n. 4, 981 A.2d 875, 880 n. 4 (2009).
In summary, I support the remand to consider the penalty matter, but, with regard to Appellant’s other claims (and capital claims in general), I believe this Court should err on the side of affording merits review, rather than foreclosing such review.

. All of Appellant’s claims of ineffectiveness on the part of his appellate counsel tend to be stated in a relatively summary fashion, relying tacitly on the development of the asserted strength and apparentness of the underlying claims to demonstrate deficient stewardship at the appellate level in the failure to appropriately advance them.
For example, the specific development of the reasonable basis prong of the claim of appellate counsel ineffectiveness in each of the claims the majority deems unworthy of merits review is as follows: "[Ajppellate counsel could have had no reasonable basis for his failure to include the claim of trial counsel's ineffectiveness in Appellant's appeal. Appellant was, and is, prepared to prove this at a hearing."; "[A]ppellate counsel could have had no reasonable basis for failing to raise all of the foregoing arguments; Appellant is entitled to a hearing on the question.”; “As these claims are meritorious, counsel could have had no reasonable strategic basis for failing to raise these claims.” Brief for Appellant at 26, 37, 52. These passages are materially identical to the discussion of the reasonable basis prong in the single claim the majority finds supports further merits review. See id. at 85 ("Counsel could have had no reasonable basis for failing to include this claim and for failing to investigate Appellant's background.”).