Com. v. Halley

Citation870 A.2d 795,582 Pa. 164
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. James HALLEY, Appellant.
Decision Date29 March 2005
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Mitchell S. Strutin, Esq., Philadelphia, for James Halley.

Hugh J. Burns, Esq., Philadelphia, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and BAER, JJ.

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

We allowed appeal to consider whether, as a component of a claim of ineffective assistance of an attorney for failing to submit a court-ordered statement of matters complained of on appeal, a post-conviction petitioner must demonstrate actual prejudice as a prerequisite to reinstatement of his direct appeal rights.

In April of 1998, Appellant participated in a killing in the Upper Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. Following a bench trial in which he and a co-defendant were convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, and criminal conspiracy, Appellant was sentenced, inter alia, to life imprisonment. Appellant's court-appointed counsel filed a timely notice of appeal, triggering an obligation on the part of the trial court to prepare an opinion, see Pa.R.A.P.1925(a), and the court correspondingly directed Appellant to file a statement of matters complained of on appeal, pursuant to Rule of Appellate Procedure 1925(b). See Pa.R.A.P.1925(b) (prescribing, inter alia, that "[t]he lower court ... may enter an order directing the appellant to file of record in the lower court and serve on the trial judge a concise statement of the matters complained of on the appeal no later than 14 days after entry of such order"). Appellant's counsel, however, failed to file the statement as directed. The trial court subsequently issued its opinion without the benefit of the statement that it had required, undertaking to review the evidence and concluding that it was sufficient to support the verdict. See Commonwealth v. Halley, No. 9810-0186 (C.P.Phila. Nov.9, 1999).

Notwithstanding counsel's failure to submit a Rule 1925(b) statement, he filed a brief on the merits in the Superior Court, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict, and that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. In an unpublished decision, however, the Superior Court held that it was precluded from considering Appellant's arguments due to the absence of a Rule 1925(b) statement. See Commonwealth v. Halley, No. 9810-0186, slip op. at 1-2 (Pa.Super.Jul.24, 2000). In support of its decision, the panel quoted this Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Lord, 553 Pa. 415, 719 A.2d 306 (1998), as follows:

[F]rom this date forward, in order to preserve their claims for appellate review, Appellants must comply whenever the trial court orders them to file a Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal pursuant to Rule 1925. Any issues not raised in a 1925(b) statement will be deemed waived.

Halley, No. 9810-0186, slip op. at 4 (quoting Lord, 553 Pa. at 420, 719 A.2d at 309) (emphasis in original). In a footnote, the panel also indicated that, had the issue not been waived, it would have agreed with the trial court's disposition. See id. at 2 n. 5. Appellant did not seek allowance of appeal by this Court. Subsequently, and with the assistance of new counsel, Appellant pursued reinstatement of his direct appeal rights under the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546 (the "PCRA"), on the theory that his prior attorney was ineffective for failing to file a Rule 1925 statement, thus resulting in the waiver of his claims on direct appeal. In terms of substantive claims for relief from his conviction and sentence, Appellant reasserted his sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge (except with respect to his conviction for possessing an instrument of crime), and, in the alternative, proffered several other arguments in support of a request for a new trial. On the Commonwealth's motion, however, the PCRA court dismissed Appellant's post-conviction petition without a hearing, noting that "[Appellant] has had a direct appeal and is not entitled to another." Commonwealth v. Halley, No. 9810-0186, slip op. at 2 (C.P.Phila.Jan.21, 2003). The court acknowledged that Appellant's weight- and sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims were deemed waived on direct appeal, and that waived claims may be considered on post-conviction review as a component of allegations of deficient stewardship of counsel resulting in the waiver. Id. at 2-3 (citing 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(4)). Nevertheless, after reviewing the trial record and post-conviction submission, the court determined that Appellant's claims were meritless.

On appeal, Appellant refined his argument seeking reinstatement of his direct appeal rights to specifically assert that his attorney's failure to protect his appellate rights amounted to an actual or constructive denial of counsel, and as such, that Appellant was entitled to a presumption of prejudice.1 In this regard, Appellant's argument implicates this Court's decision in Commonwealth v. Lantzy, 558 Pa. 214, 736 A.2d 564 (1999), which approved such a presumption in the context of an unjustified failure to file a requested direct appeal, reasoning as follows:

[W]here there is an unjustified failure to file a requested direct appeal, the conduct of counsel falls beneath the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases, denies the accused the assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, as well as the right to direct appeal under Article V, Section 9, and constitutes prejudice for the purposes of Section 9543(a)(2)(ii). Therefore, in such circumstances, and where the remaining requirements of the PCRA are established, the petitioner is not required to establish his innocence or demonstrate the merits of the issue or issues which would have been raised on appeal.

Lantzy, 558 Pa. at 226-27, 736 A.2d at 572 (footnote omitted).

In a published opinion, the Superior Court rejected Appellant's effort to extend Lantzy from the setting of an unjustified failure to file a direct appeal to the context of a failure to file a Rule 1925(b) statement. See Commonwealth v. Halley, 839 A.2d 392, 395 (Pa.Super.2003)

. In this regard, the court noted that an appeal was actually filed on Appellant's behalf. While recognizing that the appeal did not result in substantive review of Appellant's claims for relief due to the finding of waiver, the Superior Court expressed the concern that the circumstances under which a petitioner could claim an absence of an effective appeal were limitless. Moreover, it observed that this Court had identified only one other limited circumstance in which counsel's inaction would result in a presumption of prejudice, namely, the failure to file a requested petition for allowance of appeal. See Commonwealth v. Liebel, 573 Pa. 375, 825 A.2d 630 (2003). Thus, the court reviewed Appellant's claims under the traditional, three-part test for ineffectiveness, see supra note 1, including the requirement to establish actual prejudice, finding that Appellant was not entitled to relief. See Halley, 839 A.2d at 396-98.

We allowed appeal to consider Appellant's argument that presumed prejudice should pertain.2 In this regard, Appellant's present arguments track those that he asserted in the Superior Court. The Commonwealth, on the other hand, contends that the Superior Court should not have addressed Appellant's position concerning presumed prejudice, because it was not raised before the PCRA court. Therefore, the Commonwealth views that position as waived. Alternatively, the Commonwealth argues that presumed prejudice is inappropriate in the present context. The Commonwealth posits that the Court should be guided by its prior decision in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 565 Pa. 51, 771 A.2d 751 (2001) (plurality), in which a plurality of Justices applied the three-pronged ineffectiveness test in spite of a contention that counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve certain claims in a 1925(b) statement. The Commonwealth acknowledges that, in Johnson, the appellant was not completely denied a direct appeal because other issues were preserved in the 1925(b) statement. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth argues that this represents a distinction without a difference. Further, the Commonwealth endorses the Superior Court's rationale centered on the fact that Appellant was permitted to avail himself of the direct appeal procedure, albeit that waiver was ultimately invoked to foreclose merits review.

At the outset, we reject the Commonwealth's assertion of waiver relative to Appellant's present position by virtue of his asserted failure to advance it in his post-conviction petition. Appellant's petition contained the allegation that:

The petitioner was prejudiced as a result of trial counsel's failure to preserve issues for appellate review by complying with the trial court's Order directing the filing of a Statement of Matters Complained of on Appeal since he was denied appellate review of this issue.

Petition for Relief Under the Post Conviction Relief Act With Consolidated Memorandum of Law at ¶ 61. The claim that denial of merits review on direct appeal on account of counsel's deficient stewardship constitutes prejudice is, for all intents and purposes, the functional equivalent of the presumed prejudice concept considered in Lantzy. Moreover, in advancing the claim that post-conviction relief is appropriate where the petitioner establishes that he has been denied appellate review as a result of his counsel's actions, Appellant cited Commonwealth v. Hernandez, 755 A.2d 1 (Pa.Super.2000),aff'd in part, 572 Pa. 477, 817 A.2d 479 (2003), which discusses the concept of presumed prejudice and Lantzy at length. See id. at 5-9. Under the circumstances, although Appellant's position...

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