Commonwealth v. Ali

• Decision Date: 18 February 2014
• Citation: 86 A.3d 173
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Imanuel Bassil ALI, a/k/a Emanuel Lester, Appellant.

86 A.3d 173

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Imanuel Bassil ALI, a/k/a Emanuel Lester, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted Oct. 8, 2013.

Decided Feb. 18, 2014.

Elizabeth Ann Larin, Esq., Federal Community Defender Office, Eastern District of PA, Shawn Nolan, Esq., Defender Association of Philadelphia, for Imanuel Bassil Ali.

Hugh J. Burns, Esq., Philadelphia, Amy Zapp, PA Office of Attorney General, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, STEVENS, JJ.

OPINION

Justice STEVENS.

Imanuel Bassil Ali (“Appellant”) appeals from the order dismissing his second petition for collateral relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541–9546, as untimely filed. Represented by the Federal Community Defender's Office (“Federal Defender”), Appellant asserts he suffered from mental incompetency at relevant times during his first PCRA proceedings so as to qualify his present, second PCRA petition for the newly-discovered evidence exception to the PCRA time-bar. Because he fails to establish this claim by a preponderance of the evidence, we affirm.

Over twenty-two years ago, on November 12, 1991, a jury sentenced Appellant to death for the murder of Sheila Manigault. On Appellant's direct appeal, this Court unanimously affirmed his death sentence. Commonwealth v. Lester, 554 Pa. 644, 722 A.2d 997 (1998).¹ Appellant subsequently filed a timely pro se PCRA petition on June 25, 1999, and an amended petition on September 15, 1999.

As the procedural history pertaining to Appellant's first PCRA petition bears upon the inquiry we undertake to determine the timeliness of the present, second, petition, we reproduce from our opinion in Appellant's first PCRA appeal an excerpt describing this history:

On January 12, 2000, the PCRA court appointed Lee Mandell, Esq., as counsel for appellant, but appellant soon requested permission to proceed pro se. Appellant filed pro se supplemental PCRA petitions on June 20, 2000 and November 3, 2000. In early 2001, the PCRA court ordered a mental health evaluation, which was conducted on February 23, 2001. The evaluation resulted in a report that appellant had no mental health issues or substance abuse issues at the time, understood the “proper roles” and “major principles involved in a court of law,” and was competent to assist in his own defense. Mental Health Evaluation Report of James G. Jones, M.D., 2/26/01, at 2 (unnumbered). The PCRA court also conducted an extensive colloquy with appellant on the record before granting his request to proceed pro se on March 23, 2001. The Court appointed Attorney Mandell as advisory counsel. Thereafter, appellant filed an additional pro se supplemental PCRA petition on September 19, 2001; the Commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss on April 19, 2002; and appellant filed yet another supplemental pro se petition on May 30, 2002. The court sent appellant a notice of intention to dismiss pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 907 on August 14, 2002. However, on September 13, 2002, the PCRA court found appellant incompetent to proceed pro se, based upon its further review of his submissions, and noted that appellant and Attorney Mandell had irreconcilable differences. The court thus allowed Attorney Mandell to withdraw and Daniel A. Rendine, Esq., was appointed as counsel for appellant on September 20, 2002. In November 2002, however, the PCRA court again permitted appellant to represent himself and directed Attorney Rendine to serve as back-up counsel. The court then held an evidentiary hearing on April 28, 2003 and, on June 27, 2003, denied PCRA relief and formally dismissed Attorney Rendine from the case.

After appellant appealed to this Court, attorneys from the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Federal Court Division, Capital Habeas Unit [ ], entered appearance on behalf of appellant and filed a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement on appellant's behalf on April 12, 2004. Appellant then filed his own 1925(b) statement, which was dated April 12, 2004 and docketed on April 26, 2004. On May 16, 2006, appellant filed a pro se Petition to Remove Counsel and Proceed Pro Se. On June 6, 2006, the Federal Defender filed a Response, urging denial of appellant's petition. On June 15, 2006, this Court ordered the PCRA court to conduct a hearing on appellant's request to proceed pro se, pursuant to Commonwealth v. Grazier, 552 Pa. 9, 713 A.2d 81 (1998). We did not relinquish jurisdiction.

At a hearing on March 30, 2007, the Commonwealth asserted that since appellant clearly had no desire to cooperate with the Federal Defender or undergo further competency evaluation by doctors, the Grazier hearing should proceed “with all due haste.” N.T. 3/30/07, at 4. The Federal Defender responded that in its view, appellant was not competent to waive counsel and that it had a written report from a doctor [Dr. John O'Brien, M.D., a psychiatrist, see infra ] who did not believe appellant was competent. The Federal Defender sought to have a competency proceeding held prior to the Grazier hearing. The PCRA court took note of the “stalemate” created when appellant's refusal to cooperate with the Federal Defender respecting his competency led the Federal Defender to conclude that appellant was incompetent. The court stated that the matter could not be delayed any further, denied the request for a pre-Grazier competency hearing, and scheduled the Grazier hearing for April 27, 2007.² The Federal Defender's appeal of that interlocutory ruling was quashed by this Court in an August 24, 2007 order.

The Grazier hearing was held on April 27, 2007. The Federal Defender attempted to raise new substantive claims in addition to the Grazier question, but the PCRA court declined to consider claims other than the one remanded to it. Following the hearing, the PCRA court issued an order on the same date finding appellant competent to waive counsel and permitting him “to proceed pro se without standby counsel being appointed in accordance with [his] request at the Grazier hearing.” The Federal Defender appealed that order and on Jul 25, 2007, the PCRA court issued an opinion on the Grazier issue. The PCRA court noted that its determination that appellant's waiver of counsel was knowing and voluntary was supported by the court-ordered mental health evaluation, the Grazier colloquy, and appellant's behavior at the Grazier hearing as well as at several previous hearings.^{[ ]} The Federal Defender's unauthorized appeal from the grant of relief appellant himself had requested through the Grazier proceedings was ultimately quashed by order of this Court dated October 31, 2007.

Commonwealth v. Ali, 608 Pa. 71, 83–85, 10 A.3d 282, 288–291 (2010) (footnote omitted). On December 29, 2010, we affirmed the order denying PCRA relief, but noted that Appellant, acting pro se, had briefed his twelve appellate claims of ineffective assistance of counsel “ably enough” to permit meaningful review. Id. at 86, 10 A.3d at 291.

On February 25, 2011, the Federal Defender filed on Appellant's behalf the instant PCRA petition,³ Appellant's second, reintroducing “newly-discovered” competency and Brady⁴ claims previously ruled waived when raised initially in Appellant's first PCRA appeal after this Court remanded for a Grazier hearing.⁵ The PCRA court determined that no claim qualified under a Section 9545(b)(1) exception and dismissed Appellant's second petition as untimely. Appellant now appeals to this Court.

A second or subsequent petition for post-conviction relief will not be entertained unless a strong prima facie showing is offered to demonstrate that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred. Commonwealth v. Allen, 557 Pa. 135, 141, 732 A.2d 582, 586 (1999). A prima facie showingof entitlement to relief is made only by demonstrating either that the proceedings which resulted in conviction were so unfair that a miscarriage of justice occurred which no civilized society could tolerate, or the defendant's innocence of the crimes for which he was charged. Allen, at 142, 732 A.2d at 586. Our standard of review for an order denying post-conviction relief is limited to whether the trial court's determination is supported by evidence of record and whether it is free of legal error. Commonwealth v. Jermyn, 551 Pa. 96, 709 A.2d 849, 856 (1998).

A PCRA petition, including a second or subsequent petition, must be filed within one year of the date that judgment of sentence becomes final. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). A judgment becomes final for purposes of the PCRA “at the conclusion of direct review, including discretionary review in the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, or at the expiration of time for seeking the review.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(3). PCRA time limits are jurisdictional in nature, implicating a court's very power to adjudicate a controversy. Commonwealth v. Fahy, 558 Pa. 313, 737 A.2d 214 (1999). Accordingly, the “period for filing a PCRA petition is not subject to the doctrine of equitable tolling;” instead, the time for filing a PCRA petition can be extended only if the PCRA permits it to be extended, i.e., by operation of one of the statutorily enumerated exceptions to the PCRA time-bar. Id. at 329, 737 A.2d at 222.

Here, the Federal Defender grants it filed the instant, second, PCRA petition more than one year after the date Appellant's judgment became final, but asserts the PCRA court had jurisdiction to review it because it qualified under the timeliness exceptions delineated in Section 9545(b)(1), which provides as follows:

Any petition under this subchapter, including a second or subsequent petition, shall be filed within one year of the date the judgment becomes final, unless the petition alleges and the petitioner proves that:

(i) the failure to raise the claim previously was the result of interference by government officials with the presentation of the claim in violation of the...