Court Opinion

ID: 9785230
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:11:19.174685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:12.753278
License: Public Domain

Justice EAKIN,
concurring.
I reiterate that counsel’s performance, particularly regarding mitigating evidence, should be critiqued according to the law existing at the time of trial, not according to standards announced thereafter. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Sattazahn, 597 Pa. 648, 952 A.2d 640, 671 (2008) (Eakin, J., concurring and dissenting); Commonwealth v. Gibson, 597 Pa. 402, 951 A.2d 1110, 1155 (2008) (Eakin, J., concurring and dissenting); Commonwealth v. Gorby, 589 Pa. 364, 909 A.2d 775, 795-96 (2006) (Castille, J., dissenting). “Any other standard would require counsel to predict changes in the law and turn representation into prognostication.” Commonwealth v. Williams, 597 Pa. 109, 950 A.2d 294, 324 (2008) (Eakin, J., concurring).
The United States Supreme Court held the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit erred in applying the 2003 ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases to representation which occurred in the 1980s, without considering whether those guidelines reflect “the prevailing professional practice at the time of the trial.... ” Bobby v. Van Hook, — U.S.-, 130 S.Ct. 13, 17, 175 L.Ed.2d 255 (2009) (per curiam). The Court further noted,
The Sixth Amendment entitles criminal defendants to the “effective assistance of counsel” — that is, representation that does not fall “below an objective standard of reasonableness” in light of “prevailing professional norms.” That standard is necessarily a general one. Restatements of *351professional standards can be useful as “guides” to what reasonableness entails, but only to the extent they describe the professional norms prevailing when the representation took place.
Id., at 16 (citations omitted). Accordingly, the United States Supreme Court has determined the professional standards guiding the ineffectiveness inquiry are those existing “when the representation took place.” Id. The Court has recently reiterated that “[c]ounsel was entitled to formulate a strategy that was reasonable at the time and to balance limited resources in accord with effective trial tactics and strategies.” Harrington v. Richter, — U.S.-, 131 S.Ct. 770, 789, 178 L.Ed.2d 624 (U.S.2011). In Harrington, the Court faulted the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for “fail[ing] to ‘reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct’ and ‘evaluate the conduct from counsels perspective at the time.’ ” Id. (quoting Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)). This Court should do the same.
In all other respects, I join the majority opinion.