Com. v. Holland

• Decision Date: 20 May 1988
• Citation: 518 Pa. 405,543 A.2d 1068
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. William HOLLAND, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1068

543 A.2d 1068

518 Pa. 405

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. William HOLLAND, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Dec. 8, 1987.

Decided May 20, 1988.

Norris E. Gelman, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Deputy Dist. Atty., Ronald Eisenberg, Chief, Appeals Div., Helen Kane, Philadelphia, Robert A. Graci, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Harrisburg, for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., and LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, ZAPPALA and PAPADAKOS, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

FLAHERTY, Justice.

On June 12, 1985, in a trial by jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the appellant, William Holland, was found guilty of burglary, robbery, attempted deviate sexual intercourse, and murder of the first degree. In connection with the murder conviction, a separate sentencing hearing was held, as required by 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9711, and appellant was sentenced to death. The instant direct appeal ensued.

I. BACKGROUND

The incident from which the convictions arose was one in which a seventy-one year old woman was viciously assaulted by a burglar in her home. Specifically, on August 11, 1984, at approximately 5:30 A.M., the victim's ground floor apartment in the Northeast section of the City of Philadelphia was forcibly entered through a window screen. Upon entry, the burglar ripped the telephone cord from the wall and proceeded to the victim's bedroom. A bizarre and brutal attack followed. Over a period of time, the victim was stripped, tied about the wrists and legs with a venetian blind cord, stabbed numerous times with an onion peeler and another knife, jabbed with straight pins about her feet, and sexually assaulted. The apartment was ransacked, and a small amount of money was taken. A neighbor, upon hearing the victim's cries for help, summoned the police. Two patrol cars soon arrived at the scene, whereupon one of the police officers saw a man fleeing from beside the apartment building. The officer did not, however, succeed in apprehending the man at that time. Appellant was arrested and charged with the crime three days later. The victim died two weeks after the crime as a result of the injuries sustained.

II. TRIAL

Appellant has not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for murder of the first degree. However, in Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 26 n. 3, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983), we established that in each death penalty case a determination would be made by this Court as to whether there was sufficient evidence to sustain the conviction for murder of the first degree. In the instant case, the evidence of appellant's guilt is sufficiently strong as to leave no question that guilt has been established beyond a reasonable doubt.

The evidence linking appellant to the crime consisted of, inter alia, the following. The police officer who was summoned to the crime scene and saw a man beside the victim's apartment building made a positive in-court identification of the man as appellant, and testified that the man ran away as soon as a police searchlight was aimed at him. The identification was based upon the officer's observation of the man for twenty seconds in the light of dawn, as well as light from the searchlight, at a distance of thirty feet. The observation included a frontal view of the man's face. At the time of the incident the officer described the man as a white male, of thin build, approximately 5'8"' to 5'10"' in height, with a receding hairline. That description corresponded to one later given by the victim, who described her attacker as a white male, of slight build, approximately 5'7"' to 5'9"' in height, wearing a mask.

A resident of an apartment building near the one where the attack occurred contacted police regarding the incident and supplied information leading police to believe that an individual known to the resident as "Bill" could be regarded as a suspect. The resident reported that, just hours before the crime in question, she saw "Bill" looking through her apartment window. She told police that "Bill" resided in an apartment building behind that of the victim, and described "Bill" as a white man, weighing 140 pounds, approximately 5'7"' to 5'9"' in height, with a receding hairline. Plainclothes police officers went to the apartment building to examine the mailboxes, hoping to learn the surname of "Bill." While examining the mailboxes, one of the officers was approached by appellant, and appellant inquired about the officer's purpose in being there. The officer, realizing that appellant matched the description of "Bill," said he was looking for another individual, and gave as the name of the individual a name randomly selected from the mailboxes. Appellant offered to go and get the individual, but then disappeared behind a locked door and fled from the scene. The plainclothes officers gave pursuit, identifying themselves as police officers and ordering appellant to stop. Appellant ignored their commands, however, and escaped.

Subsequent investigation revealed that "Bill" was actually named William Holland, appellant herein, and that appellant resided in the apartment building with his mother. On August 14, 1984, three days after the crime, appellant was located by police at the nearby home of his grandmother. Appellant voluntarily accompanied police to a police station and made a number of incriminating statements, including two confessions that were later introduced at trial. The confessions included very detailed and complete admissions as to appellant's role in the crime. Based upon this evidence, it is clear that appellant's guilt has been established beyond a reasonable doubt.

The first issue raised in this appeal concerns the trial court's instruction to the jury regarding the voluntariness of the confessions introduced into evidence. It is alleged that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the instruction on voluntariness, inasmuch as it did not include elements such as the burden of proof as to voluntariness, the duty to disregard statements involuntarily issued, etc. The charge given by the court was as follows:

There was some talk, too, about the statement that was given. Of course, a statement must be voluntary. Now, to be voluntary, a defendant's statement must be the product of an essentially free will and choice after being warned of his rights. If a defendant's will and ability to choose are overborn by physical or mental pressure, any statement which he then makes would be then involuntary.

There is no need, however, to discuss this charge in detail, for the circumstances of this case are such that no charge on voluntariness was required. Thus, any alleged inadequacies in the charge were necessarily of an inconsequential nature. Examination of the record reveals that the trial court provided the instruction relating to voluntariness merely as a comment upon some of the matters mentioned in counsel's arguments to the jury, rather than on grounds there was evidence in the record placing the question of voluntariness before the jury.

It is axiomatic that a jury need not be instructed regarding matters that have no relevance to the evidence introduced at trial. As stated in Commonwealth v. Whiting, 409 Pa. 492, 498, 187 A.2d 563, 566 (1963), "There is no duty on a trial judge to charge a jury upon law which has no applicability to the presented facts. There must be some relationship between the law upon which an instruction is required and the evidence presented at the trial: Commonwealth v. Coleman, 402 Pa. 238, 166 A.2d 525 (1961)." See also Commonwealth v. Tervalon, 463 Pa. 581, 593, 345 A.2d 671, 678 (1975); Commonwealth v. Bighum, 452 Pa. 554, 559, 307 A.2d 255, 258 (1973); Commonwealth v. Heckathorn, 429 Pa. 534, 540, 241 A.2d 97, 100 (1968) ("A charge on a point or issue which is unsupported by any evidence is likely to confuse the jury and obstruct Justice.")

Certainly, if appellant had a basis for challenging the voluntariness of his confessions, evidence could have been introduced at trial placing the issue of voluntariness before the jury, even though a suppression court had previously ruled the confessions admissible. Commonwealth v. Motley, 472 Pa. 421, 429, 372 A.2d 764, 768 (1977); Commonwealth v. Coach, 471 Pa. 389, 394, 370 A.2d 358, 361 (1977). In the instant case, however, the record simply did not contain anything providing a basis for belief that the confessions were involuntary.

At trial, the Commonwealth introduced extensive testimony regarding the circumstances under which appellant confessed to the crime. According to that testimony appellant voluntarily accompanied officers to the police station, whereupon he was fully informed of his constitutional rights and proceeded to admit his guilt, under circumstances that provided not even a trace of coercion. The sole basis relied upon by appellant in asserting that a full instruction on voluntariness should have been given is the fact that trial counsel argued to the jury that the confessions were not voluntarily given. Counsel's arguments, however, cannot be employed to create trial issues for submission to the jury, when the issues lack any basis in the record.

Trial counsel's argument in this case, insofar as it addressed the matter of voluntariness, was based solely upon one fact. Specifically, earlier in the day on which appellant issued his confessions, before appellant was located by police, appellant's mother spoke on the telephone with her other son, who happened to be a police officer in the same district where the crime occurred. She told him that police had been to her apartment in connection with an investigation of the crime in question, with reference to appellant's possible involvement. In response, he expressed concern for his brother, the appellant, and told his mother that if appellant continued to run from...