Com. v. Miller

• Decision Date: 24 February 2000
• Citation: 746 A.2d 592,560 Pa. 500
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Joseph Daniel MILLER, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

746 A.2d 592

560 Pa. 500

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Joseph Daniel MILLER, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted January 12, 1999.

Decided February 24, 2000.

Reargument Denied April 28, 2000.

Francis M. Socha for Joseph Daniel Miller.

Jeffrey B. Engle, Millersburg, for Com Robert A. Graci, Harrisburg, for Office of Atty. Gen.

Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN and SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION OF THE COURT

CASTILLE, Justice.

In this appeal from the denial of appellant's petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541, et seq. ("PCRA"), appellant alleges various claims of trial court error, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffectiveness of counsel. For the reasons set forth below, we find that appellant is not entitled to relief and we affirm the ruling of the PCRA court.

Preliminarily, it is noted that on March 19, 1996, appellant was granted a stay of execution and was appointed new counsel for the purpose of filing his first PCRA petition. On June 3, 1996, appellant was granted an extension of time to file his first PCRA petition due to counsel's difficulty in obtaining certain records necessary for the filing of the petition. On November 19, 1996, as well as on December 13, 1996, appellant was again granted extensions of time to file his PCRA petition, and on February 24, 1997, the petition was filed. Since the petition under review is appellant's first petition and because appellant sought permission of the lower court to file a PCRA petition within one year of final judgment, the petition is timely.¹ 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1).

On direct appeal, this Court affirmed appellant's convictions and judgment of sentence. Commonwealth v. Miller, 541 Pa. 531, 664 A.2d 1310 (1995). We summarized the facts giving rise to appellant's convictions as follows:

[O]n August 6, 1992, appellant was arrested in connection with the rape of Clara Johnson, which had occurred the previous day. While in custody and after waiving his Miranda rights, appellant confessed to raping and murdering two other victims, Selina Franklin and Stephanie McDuffey, several years earlier. After confessing regarding the other two victims, appellant led police to where their bodies were buried. Appellant ultimately pleaded guilty to the 1992 charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault and attempted homicide arising out of his 1992 attack on Clara Johnson. Evidence concerning that attack was admitted at appellant's trial for the kidnapping and murders of victims Franklin and McDuffey in order to establish a common scheme, plan or design.

The evidence regarding Clara Johnson, a six foot tall black woman, was that on August 5, 1992, while she waited for a cab at the Uptown Grill (a bar in Harrisburg), appellant and a friend of his offered her a ride. After the friend was dropped off, Johnson testified that she asked appellant to take her back to the bar because she had only consented to the ride when she believed that the friend would be present. Appellant pretended to agree to take her back to the Uptown Grill, but, after stopping at a mini-market for cigarettes and gasoline, he began driving in a direction away from the Uptown Grill, and in a direction away from Johnson's home. Johnson became nervous and, when she tried to get appellant to stop the car, a struggle ensued. Appellant told Johnson that he had something to do with her and that she "wasn't going anywhere." Appellant proceeded to drive at a high rate of speed to an isolated area near Conrail train tracks and, when Johnson tried to jump from the moving vehicle, appellant slammed on the brakes, causing the car door to hit her in the head, dazing her. Appellant then attempted to run over Johnson with the car, but she fell down an embankment. Upon finding her approximately a half mile away from the car, appellant beat her in the head and face and raped her. After consuming a beer, he bound her with duct tape, and placed a knife to her throat. Appellant then informed Johnson that he was going to rape her again, after which he would have to kill her. He also told Johnson that all women were alike and that he had killed other women.

After raping Johnson again, appellant then repeatedly beat her about the head with beer bottles, and dragged her approximately half a mile by her legs to a ditch near where the car was parked, where he put duct tape over her mouth and nose. By happenstance, a Conrail security officer came upon the scene as appellant was dragging Johnson to the ditch. Upon seeing the Conrail officer, appellant fled on foot, leaving behind his car with a bloody knife stuck in the window well. Clara Johnson fortunately survived her ordeal and testified against appellant.

A registration check of the car left at the scene revealed that it belonged to appellant. Based on this information and on Johnson's statement, police went to appellant's home at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, August 6, 1992, to arrest him. Appellant fled to the roof of a multi-story apartment building, where he was apprehended after a six-hour standoff during which he had threatened to jump. Appellant was arrested and charged with the rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping and attempted murder of Clara Johnson. After being read and waiving his Miranda rights, appellant told Detective Thomas Brennan that Johnson had voluntarily accompanied him to the Conrail yard to have sex, and that a fight had ensued after an argument. At the end of the interview, Detective Brennan told appellant that he believed appellant had probably been involved in other assaults and that appellant could get in touch with him if he wished to provide further information or take him to any other bodies.

Five days later, on August 11, 1992, while in custody, appellant requested a meeting with Detective Brennan through a counselor at the Dauphin County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Program. Pursuant to appellant's request, Detective Brennan and appellant met at the prison between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. After again waiving his Miranda rights, appellant further stated to Detective Brennan that he had killed a woman named Selina Franklin in 1987, and told Detective Brennan that he would take him to the body. Appellant also asked at the meeting to speak to a representative of the District Attorney's Office. Complying with appellant's request, Detective Brennan transported appellant to the District Attorney's Office at about 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. to meet with First Assistant District Attorney William Tully. En route to the District Attorney's Office, appellant told the detective that he had killed yet another woman in 1989, but that he did not recall her name.

At the District Attorney's Office, appellant told Mr. Tully, in Detective Brennan's presence, that he had committed several homicides and wanted the death penalty because he did not wish to further embarrass his family. Appellant further told Mr. Tully that the bodies were located at the Swatara Township landfill. While awaiting the assistance of other police departments to join in the search of the landfill, appellant gave Detective Brennan more details of the murders.

Specifically, appellant said in his statement that he had picked up Selina Franklin and her friends, and, after dropping off the other women at their homes, he took Franklin to the landfill where Franklin agreed to have sex with him for thirty-five dollars. He told Detective Brennan that after having sex with Franklin, he found an electrical insulator with which he beat Franklin over the head until she was dead. He then retrieved the thirty-five dollars from her pocket. Appellant said that several days after being questioned by police in connection with Franklin's disappearance, he had returned to the landfill, located the body and moved it to a different location, removed some of the victim's clothing and scattered it around the landfill and buried the body along with the insulator. When he returned again several months later, he found bones sticking out of the ground, which he threw down a hill.

Appellant also told Detective Brennan about the killing of the other woman, whose name he did not know but who was later identified through testimony as Stephanie McDuffey. Appellant told the detective that sometime in 1989, he had picked up this second victim on the streets of Harrisburg and taken her to the same landfill where he had taken Franklin and that he and the second victim had sexual intercourse. He then took a piece of pipe from a junked car with which he beat her over the head until she was dead. Appellant told Detective Brennan that he then dragged her a short distance off the access road through the landfill and covered her body, along with the pipe, with lumber, shingles and tires.

Appellant also recounted the assault on Johnson which led to his arrest. Although appellant claimed that Johnson had accompanied him to the Conrail yard voluntarily and that they had had consensual sex, he also told Detective Brennan that sometimes he just got "the urge to go out, pick up a black female, rape her and kill her."

After his detailed statement to the first deputy D.A. and Detective Brennan, appellant was taken to the Swatara Township landfill between 6:00 and 7:00 that evening, where he pointed out the general location of the two bodies to police. Because police were not equipped to conduct a search at night, appellant agreed to return to the landfill the next morning to aid in the search for the bodies. On August 12, 1992, Detectives Brennan and Wenner secured appellant from the prison, advised him once again of his Miranda rights, which he waived, and took him to the landfill. During the drive, appellant marked two areas on an aerial photograph provided by the detectives as the general areas where the bodies were located. These corresponded to the areas he had indicated the previous night. En route to the landfill, appellant began to laugh for

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