Com. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 22 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 360 CAP.,No. 350 CAP.,350 CAP.,360 CAP.
• Citation: 951 A.2d 294
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. James JONES, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

951 A.2d 294

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. James JONES, Appellant.

No. 350 CAP.

No. 360 CAP.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted January 6, 2004.

Decided July 22, 2008.

Robert Brett Dunham, Philadelphia, for James Jones.

Amy Zapp, Hugh J. Burns, Jr., Philadelphia District Attorney's Office for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, GREENSPAN, JJ.

OPINION

Justice TODD.¹

In this capital case, Appellant James Jones appeals the August 11, 2006 order of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas dismissing without a hearing his petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-46. This case is before this Court following our prior remand to the PCRA court, wherein we instructed the court to consider Appellant's claim of racial discrimination during jury selection. For the reasons that follow, we now affirm the PCRA court's order.

Appellant was tried before the Honorable Robert Latrone and, on June 4, 1981, was convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree murder,² two counts of arson endangering persons,³ and one count of arson endangering property.⁴ The convictions were based on an incident in which Appellant bound, gagged, and set fire to two victims in the basement of a house in Philadelphia.⁵ On June 6, 1985, a jury sentenced Appellant to death based on its finding of three aggravating circumstances that outweighed its finding of one mitigating circumstance,⁶ and on June 21, 1985, Appellant filed a notice of appeal.⁷ Appellant's judgment of sentence was affirmed by this Court on December 28, 1994, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on October 2, 1995. (James) Jones v. Pennsylvania, 516 U.S. 835, 116 S.Ct. 113, 133 L.Ed.2d 65 (1995).

On October 6, 1995, Appellant filed a timely pro se PCRA petition, wherein he requested a new trial and asked that his judgment of sentence be vacated. Counsel was appointed, and following an evidentiary hearing, the PCRA court, on June 12, 2001, denied Appellant's request for a new trial, but vacated Appellant's death sentence and granted him a new penalty phase hearing. Appellant appealed the PCRA court's order to the extent it denied him a new trial, and the Commonwealth filed a cross-appeal, which it subsequently withdrew. On June 21, 2005, this Court affirmed the PCRA court's denial of relief, but remanded the matter to the PCRA court for further proceedings regarding a single issue, namely, Appellant's claim of racial discrimination during jury selection pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). We noted that the PCRA court had failed to conduct an evidentiary hearing on Appellant's claim of racial discrimination, and failed to address the claim in its opinion. Commonwealth v. (James) Jones, 583 Pa. 130, 876 A.2d 380 (2005).

On April 26, 2006, the PCRA court set a briefing schedule, at which time Appellant requested that the Commonwealth be ordered to produce the Philadelphia District Attorney's notes from voir dire. Thereafter, on June 30, 2006, Appellant submitted a statement regarding his Batson claim, which the PCRA court treated as a supplement to Appellant's PCRA petition. Following argument on August 11, 2006, the PCRA court concluded, in an opinion dated August 28, 2006, that Appellant was not entitled to relief.

Our standard of review in an appeal from the denial of PCRA relief requires us to determine whether the ruling of the PCRA court is supported by the record and is free from legal error. Commonwealth v. Washington, 592 Pa. 698, 710-11, 927 A.2d 586, 593 (2007) (citations omitted). In order to be eligible for relief under the PCRA in effect at the time his petition was filed, Appellant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his conviction or sentence resulted from one or more of the following:

(i) A violation of the Constitution of Pennsylvania or laws of this Commonwealth or the Constitution of the United States which, in the circumstances of the particular case, so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place.

(ii) Ineffective assistance of counsel which, in the circumstances of the particular case, so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place.

(iii) A plea of guilty unlawfully induced where the circumstances make it likely that the inducement caused an individual to plead guilty.

(iv) The improper obstruction by Commonwealth officials of the petitioner's right of appeal where a meritorious appealable issue existed and was properly preserved in the trial court.

(v) A violation of the provisions of the Constitution, law or treaties of the United States which would require the granting of federal habeas corpus relief to a state prisoner.

(vi) The unavailability at the time of trial of exculpatory evidence that has subsequently become available and that would have affected the outcome of the trial if it had been introduced.

(vii) The imposition of a sentence greater than the lawful maximum.

(viii) A proceeding in a tribunal without jurisdiction.

42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9543(a)(2), amended by 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9543(a)(2) (1995).

Additionally, an appellant must prove that the issues raised have not been previously litigated or waived, and that "the failure to litigate the issue prior to or during trial or on direct appeal could not have been the result of any rational, strategic or tactical decision by counsel." 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9543(a)(4). An issue has been previously litigated if the highest appellate court in which the petitioner was entitled to review as a matter of right has ruled on the merits of the issue. 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9544(a)(2). Furthermore, a PCRA claim is waived "if the petitioner could have raised it but failed to do so before trial, at trial, during unitary review, on appeal or in a prior state post-conviction proceeding." Washington, 592 Pa. at 712, 927 A.2d at 594 (quoting 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9544(b)).

On appeal, Appellant presents the following issues for review, which we have reordered for sake of our discussion:

I. Did this Court err in requiring the PCRA court to apply Commonwealth v. Uderra as the controlling law in reviewing [Appellant's] claim for relief under Batson v. Kentucky?

II. Did the PCRA court err in declining to treat this claim in the posture of a direct appeal nunc pro tunc as a result of the state courts' failures at all stages prior to post-conviction to produce the notes of testimony of the voir dire and the failures of all trial, post-trial, and direct appeal counsel to request production of the voir dire transcripts?

III. Did the PCRA court improperly deny relief on [Appellant's] claim that the Commonwealth exercised its preemptory strikes in a racially discriminatory manner, in violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and Article I, Sections 1, 9, and 26 of the Pennsylvania Constitution?

IV. Did the PCRA court err in refusing to grant discovery and an evidentiary hearing on [Appellant's] claim that the Commonwealth exercised its preemptory strikes in a racially discriminatory manner?

Appellant's Brief at 3.

I. Applicability of Commonwealth v. Uderra

In our opinion of June 21, 2005, this Court noted that although the PCRA Court had addressed Appellant's claim of gender discrimination during voir dire, it failed to conduct an evidentiary hearing on Appellant's claim of racial discrimination, and failed to address the claim in its opinion. As a result, we vacated the portion of the PCRA court's order dismissing Appellant's claim of racial discrimination and remanded "for the PCRA court to address this issue, including consideration of Appellant's request for an evidentiary hearing on this claim," citing Commonwealth v. Uderra, 580 Pa. 492, 862 A.2d 74, 87 (2004), as setting forth the standard for a claim of racial discrimination in jury selection that was not preserved at trial. Jones, 583 Pa. at 137, 876 A.2d at 384. Appellant now contends that this Court erred in instructing the PCRA court to apply Uderra when evaluating his claim for relief under Batson. We reject Appellant's claim.

In Batson, the United States Supreme Court reiterated that a defendant is denied equal protection of the law when the government "puts him on trial before a jury from which members of his race have been purposefully excluded." 476 U.S. at 85, 106 S.Ct. 1712. The Court in Batson established a three-step inquiry for evaluating claims of racial discrimination in jury selection. First, the defendant must make a prima facie showing that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges on the basis of race. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. 1712. Second, if the requisite showing has been made, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to articulate a race-neutral explanation for striking the jurors in question. Id. at 97, 106 S.Ct. 1712. Finally, the trial court must determine whether the defendant has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination. Id. at 98, 106 S.Ct. 1712.

Under Batson, to establish a prima facie case that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner, the defendant must prove that he is a member of a cognizable racial or ethnic group and that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove members of such group from the venire. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. 1712. The defendant also must show that these facts and other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the Commonwealth used peremptory challenges to exclude venire persons from the same racial or ethnic group. Id. In doing so, the defendant is entitled to rely on the fact that "peremptory challenges constitute a jury selection practice that permits `those to discriminate who are of a mind to discriminate.'" Id. (citation omitted).

In Commonwealth v. Spence, 534 Pa. 233, 627 A.2d 1176 (...