Com. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 26 November 2007
• Docket Number: Nos. 421 CAP, 422 CAP.,s. 421 CAP, 422 CAP.
• Citation: 936 A.2d 12
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Christopher WILLIAMS, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

936 A.2d 12

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Christopher WILLIAMS, Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Nos. 421 CAP, 422 CAP.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted December 27, 2004.

Decided November 26, 2007.

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

Victor J. Abreu, Jr., Esq., Harrisburg, for Christopher Williams.

Anne L. Saunders, Esq., Victor J. Abreu, Jr., Esq., Harrisburg, for Christopher Williams.

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

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, BALDWIN and FITZGERALD, JJ.

OPINION

Justice CASTILLE.

In consolidated cross-appeals in this capital case, the Commonwealth appeals the May 29, 2003 order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County ("PCRA court") granting Christopher Williams (hereinafter, "appellee") a new trial pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"), 42 Pa.C.S. § 9541 et seq., while appellee, as cross-appellant, appeals the May 14, 2002 order of the PCRA court dismissing in part certain claims contained in his PCRA petition. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the PCRA court's May 29, 2003 order to the extent that it vacated appellee's conviction for violating the Pennsylvania Corrupt Organizations Act ("Pa.C.O.A."); we reverse the PCRA court's May 29, 2003 order to the extent that it granted appellee a new trial; we vacate the portion of the PCRA court's May 14, 2002 order dismissing appellee's claims; and we remand the matter for a more thorough consideration of those claims.

Beginning in late July 1993, appellee and two co-defendants, Rick Bennett and Theopolis Wilson, were tried by a jury sitting before the Honorable Paul Ribner. On August 6, 1993, the jury convicted appellee of three counts each of first-degree murder (victims Gavin Anderson, Kevin Anderson, and Otis Reynolds),¹ robbery,² and criminal conspiracy,³ as well as one count of violating the Pa.C.O.A.⁴ and one count of possessing an instrument of crime ("PIC").⁵ The jury acquitted appellee of a fourth count of first-degree murder (victim William Graham) and a count of Pa.C.O.A. conspiracy.⁶ According to the facts advanced at trial, appellee was the leader of a group of conspirators that bought and sold drugs and guns, robbed other drug dealers, and on occasion murdered drug dealers after robbing them. The instant convictions arose from an incident occurring in the Germantown section of Philadelphia where appellee shot and killed Gavin Anderson, Kevin Anderson, and Otis Reynolds after appellee and his fellow conspirators had robbed the victims. The three victims themselves were drug dealers who were lured to a meeting with appellee under the pretext of a fake gun sale.⁷ Following a penalty hearing, the same jury found three aggravating circumstances: (1) the three murders were committed during the perpetration of the felony of robbery, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6); (2) appellee had a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to the person, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(9); and (3) appellee had been convicted of another murder, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(11). The jury found "family considerations" as a mitigating factor pursuant to the "catchall" mitigator. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(e)(8) ("Any other evidence of mitigation concerning the character and record of the defendant and the circumstances of his offense."). The jury determined that the three aggravating factors outweighed the single mitigating circumstance and, accordingly, set the penalty at death for each of the murders.

After the denial of post-sentence motions, the trial court formally imposed three consecutive death sentences for the first-degree murders, together with terms of imprisonment of 5 to 10 years for each robbery conviction, 2 to 4 years for each conspiracy conviction, 1 to 2 years for the Pa.C.O.A. conviction, and 6 to 12 months for the PIC conviction, all of which were concurrent with each other, but consecutive to the death sentences. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed appellee's convictions and sentences on October 2, 1998. Commonwealth v. Williams, 554 Pa. 1, 720 A.2d 679 (1998).⁸ Appellee's petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court on June 7, 1999. Williams v. Pennsylvania, 526 U.S. 1161, 119 S.Ct. 2052, 144 L.Ed.2d 219 (1999).

On July 15, 1999, appellee filed a timely pro se PCRA petition.⁹ Thereafter, on October 31, 2000, appellee filed an amended, counseled PCRA petition, which was further supplemented on May 9, 2001. In his amended, counseled PCRA petition, appellee raised twenty-six collateral claims. On June 5, 2001, the Commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss. On May 14, 2002, the PCRA court, per the Honorable William J. Manfredi,¹⁰ issued an order granting the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss in part, dismissing appellee's claims with the exception of one: whether appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the applicability of Commonwealth v. Besch, 544 Pa. 1, 674 A.2d 655 (1996) on direct appeal to this Court.¹¹ With regard to this claim, the PCRA court first determined that appellee's gang was not connected to an otherwise legitimate business enterprise and, accordingly, was wholly illegitimate. The PCRA court then concluded, as a matter of law, that direct appeal counsel had an opportunity to raise Besch on appeal, and that if appellate counsel had done so, this Court would have reversed the Pa.C.O.A. conviction. The remaining issue, according to the PCRA court, was whether appellee should be granted a new trial on all charges based on the effect of the admission of the corresponding Pa.C.O.A. evidence at trial. To aid the court in resolving this issue, it ordered an evidentiary hearing to establish what evidence, if any, would not have been admissible had there been no Pa.C.O.A. charges. Additionally, the PCRA court ordered that appellee submit a "concise list of all categories of evidence which he claims would have been inadmissible at trial (including citations to trial record), along with succinct statements in support of each claim of inadmissibility (including pin-point case citations, where appropriate)." PCRA Ct. Order, 5/14/02, at 2.

Pursuant to the PCRA court's order, on July 10, 2002, appellee submitted a pre-hearing memorandum highlighting a considerable amount of trial testimony that he argued would have been inadmissible had there been no Pa.C.O.A. charges. Appellee further argued that the inadmissible evidence severely tainted the jury's verdict on the other charges, thereby requiring a new trial. Moreover, attached to the memorandum was a signed statement from David Rudenstein, Esq., appellee's direct appeal counsel, stating that he had no tactical or strategic reason for failing to raise a Besch claim on direct appeal. The Commonwealth submitted its response on August 19, 2002, primarily arguing that appellee's claim was meritless because he failed to prove actual prejudice. Specifically, the Commonwealth maintained that the Pa.C.O.A. evidence had no bearing on the outcome of the trial because, out of the eight predicate racketeering acts offered to the jury with respect to the substantive Pa.C.O.A. charge, the jury found only three — the murder and robbery of Gavin Anderson, the murder and robbery of Kevin Anderson, and the murder and robbery of Otis Reynolds — and each of those incidents resulted in non-Pa.C.O.A. convictions as well.¹² Therefore, according to the Commonwealth, the jury could not have been tainted by the admission of other crimes evidence where the jury expressly found appellee criminally responsible, under the Pa.C.O.A., for only the murders and robberies in which he was the actual shooter.

Although both the Commonwealth and appellee note in their respective briefs that a PCRA hearing was held on October 28, 2002, the record reveals that only a status hearing took place on that date. Accordingly, there is no transcript and no record of testimony offered. In an order dated May 29, 2003, the PCRA court vacated appellee's Pa.C.O.A. conviction, vacated the sentences for the remaining convictions, and granted a global new trial on the non-Pa.C.O.A. charges. In an accompanying opinion, the PCRA court reiterated that appellate counsel had an opportunity to raise Besch on direct appeal, and opined that, if he had done so, this Court would have reversed the Pa.C.O.A. conviction. The court then determined that the Pa. C.O.A. evidence admitted at trial was substantial and highly prejudicial, and opined that it would not have been admissible if not for the Pa.C.O.A. charges. This retroactively inadmissible evidence, as noted by the court, included: "testimony regarding criminal acts and conduct by others in the alleged `organization' which occurred after [appellee] was incarcerated; and evidence of gun transactions, drug activity, robberies and other murders, including a murder for which [appellee] had been acquitted." PCRA Ct. Op., 5/29/03, at 3. The PCRA court noted that the resulting and complicated issue was whether the admission of the Pa.C.O.A. evidence, now rendered inadmissible by Besch, required a new trial on all the charges even though Besch did not directly affect those charges. The court concluded with a peremptory view grounded in the capital nature of the case, opining that: "[u]ntil and unless the Supreme Court instructs otherwise, we believe that a conviction resulting in a sentence of death must not be based upon highly inflammatory evidence that was only admissible by virtue of the serendipitous timing of a pending challenge to the [Pa.C.O.A.]." Id. at 3-4, 674 A.2d 655.

On its appeal, the Commonwealth challenges the relief granted to appellee by the PCRA court in its May 29, 2003 order regarding the Besch-ineffectiveness issue. In his protective cross-appeal, appellee challenges the PCRA court's dismissal of his remaining prolix claims...