Com. v. Williams
| Decision Date | 22 July 1998 |
| Citation | 552 Pa. 451,715 A.2d 1101 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Gary WILLIAMS, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO and NEWMAN, JJ.
In this appeal, we must decide whether the Superior Court erred when it affirmed Gary Williams' (Williams) judgment of sentence for controlled substance offenses because he did not provide the Superior Court with the complete trial court record from his case. Because the circumstances preventing timely transmission of the record are unclear, we reverse the Order of the Superior Court and remand this case to that court with instructions to remand this matter to the Court of Common Pleas for an evidentiary hearing.
On April 25, 1990, police officers arrested Williams in Amtrak's 30th Street Station in Philadelphia and recovered 51.79 grams of crack cocaine from him. The Commonwealth charged him with possession of cocaine 1 and possession with intent to deliver cocaine. 2 The Defender Association of Philadelphia 3 was appointed to represent Williams and filed a motion to suppress evidence for him. After a suppression hearing before the Honorable James Fitzgerald of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (trial court) on March 31, 1992, the court denied the motion to suppress. Williams waived his right to a jury trial and immediately proceeded to a nonjury trial before Judge Fitzgerald, who convicted him of both offenses.
Williams filed post-verdict motions, which were scheduled for the same day as his sentencing hearing. On May 18, 1992, defense counsel requested a continuance of the sentencing hearing because he had not yet received the notes of testimony from the suppression hearing and trial. The court reporter transcribed the notes of testimony on May 29, 1993 and forwarded a copy to defense counsel.
What occurred after that is not clear, and the continuing controversy about what happened to those notes of testimony is at the heart of this appeal. For instance, it is unclear from the record whether the court reporter provided a copy of the notes of testimony to the trial court. Nevertheless, on November 29, 1993, the trial court denied Williams' post-verdict motions and sentenced him to thirty-nine months to ten years incarceration and a fine of $15,000.00.
On December 13, 1993, the defense filed a Notice of Appeal that contained a routine request that the court reporter "produce, certify, and file" the transcript of November 29, 1993, which was the date of the sentencing hearing. The request to produce, certify and file the transcript did not include any mention of the notes of testimony from the suppression hearing and trial on March 31, 1992. 4 The Superior Court sent the parties Defense counsel filed a brief in the Superior Court on February 1, 1995, 5 and his brief specifically referred to the pages in the notes of testimony in the suppression hearing and trial transcripts, which apparently were in his possession. After that, the Commonwealth petitioned the Superior Court to suspend its briefing deadline because the Commonwealth did not have a copy of the notes of testimony from the suppression hearing and trial and those transcripts were not in the Superior Court file because the certified record was not yet transmitted. When defense counsel received the Commonwealth's Petition, he forwarded a copy of the notes of testimony to the Commonwealth, and informed the Superior Court that he had done so.
notification that the trial court record was due to be transmitted to the Superior Court on January 24, 1994. Nearly eleven months later, on December 20, 1994, the Superior Court had still not received the trial court record, and it notified the parties that the record had not been transmitted, and ordered the Court of Common Pleas to forward the record immediately. On that same date, the Superior Court ordered defense counsel to file his brief on or before January 30, 1995.
The Commonwealth filed its brief in the Superior Court on April 5, 1995. In addition to responding to the merits of Williams' suppression claim, the Commonwealth argued that Williams had forfeited his right to appellate review on the merits because he did not fulfill his obligation to ensure that the required record was transmitted to the Superior Court. Defense counsel filed a reply brief in the Superior Court in which he argued that he was not responsible for completing the record, and instead he claimed that the prosecution had the burden of taking necessary steps to complete the certified record.
Oral argument in the Superior Court took place on June 27, 1997, with the record still not transmitted. The Superior Court sent an Order dated July 6, 1995 that again directed the Court of Common Pleas to transmit the record. After waiting nearly five more months, the Superior Court issued an Order and Memorandum Opinion that affirmed the judgment of sentence and held that Williams' failure to provide the court with a complete record precluded the Court from analyzing the merits of the appeal. Judge Cercone filed a dissenting statement in which he noted that there was no explanation in the record as to why the certified record was never transmitted to the Superior Court. He presumed that there must have been an "extraordinary breakdown in the judicial process" and concluded that Williams should not be prejudiced by those events.
Williams filed an Application for Reargument on December 12, 1995, and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas finally transmitted the record to the Superior Court on January 18, 1996. The Superior Court denied the Application for Reargument and this Court granted Williams' Petition for Allowance of Appeal.
The fundamental tool for appellate review is the official record of what happened at trial, and appellate Courts are limited to considering only those facts that have been duly certified in the record on appeal. Commonwealth v. Young, 456 Pa. 102, 115, 317 A.2d 258, 264 (1974). To ensure that the appellate courts have all necessary records, the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure provide for the transmission of certified records from trial courts to appellate courts. We therefore begin our discussion with an analysis of the pertinent appellate procedural rules that govern the transmission of records.
Rule 1911 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure requires appellants to order any transcripts necessary to complete the records for their appeals, and provides in pertinent part as follows:
RULE 1911. ORDER FOR TRANSCRIPT
(a) General Rule. The appellant shall order any transcript required under this chapter in the manner and make any necessary payment or deposit therefor in the amount and within the time prescribed by Rule 5000.1 et seq. of the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration (court reporters).
* * *
(d) Effect of Failure to Comply. If the appellant fails to take the action required by these rules and the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Administration for the preparation of the transcript, the appellate court may take such action as it deems appropriate, which may include dismissal of the appeal.
Pa.R.A.P. 1911. This rule makes it clear that appellants must order all transcripts necessary to decide the appeal, and that the Superior Court may take any action it deems appropriate, including dismissal of the appeal, if the appellant does not order the necessary transcripts.
This Court interpreted Rule 1911 in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 542 Pa. 384, 668 A.2d 97 (1995), in which we denied a defendant review of an issue on appeal because he did not comply with the requirements of Pa.R.A.P. 1911. The defendant in Johnson was convicted of first degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and recklessly endangering another person and was sentenced to death. The trial court denied post-verdict motions and the defendant filed a direct appeal to this Court raising numerous issues, including an allegation that the prosecutor violated the United States Supreme Court's decision in Batson v. Kentucky 6 by using peremptory challenges selectively to exclude prospective black jurors from the final jury panel.
In Johnson, this Court noted that the record was incomplete because it contained transcripts from only two days of voir dire, during which five out of twelve jurors were selected. In addition, the record did not refer to the races of the jurors. This Court held that the defendant's Batson claim did not merit review because his failure to comply with Pa.R.A.P.1911 precluded appellate review.
Although Rule 1911 requires appellants to order all transcripts necessary for their appeals, it does not place on appellants the burden to transmit the record to the Superior Court. 7 Rule 1931 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure governs the transmission of the records to the Superior Court, and provides as follows:
Rule 1931. Transmission of the Record
(a) Time for transmission. The record on appeal, including the transcript and exhibits necessary for the determination of the appeal, shall be transmitted to the appellate court within 40 days after the filing of the notice of appeal. If an appeal has been allowed or if permission to appeal has been granted, the record shall be transmitted as provided by Rule 1122 () or by Rule 1322 (), as the case may be. The appellate court may shorten or extend the time prescribed by this subdivision.
(b) Duty of lower court. After a notice of appeal has been filed the judge who entered the order appealed from shall comply with Rule 1925 ()...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Commonwealth v. Smith, No. 2 EAP 2019
...that the exhibit was moved into evidence during those proceedings or subsequently at Smith's bench trial. See Commonwealth v. Williams , 552 Pa. 451, 715 A.2d 1101, 1103 (1998) ("Appellate courts are limited to considering only those facts that have been duly certified in the record on appe......
-
Com. v. Wright
...case for the inclusion of the photographs, which is an option under the decision of the Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Williams, 552 Pa. 451, 461-464, 715 A.2d 1101, 1105-1107 (1998), we specifically find that this issue is not waived or finally litigated under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(3), an......
-
Commonwealth of Pa. v. Spotz
...court, we are “limited to considering only those facts that have been duly certified in the record on appeal.” Commonwealth v. Williams, 552 Pa. 451, 715 A.2d 1101, 1103 (1998). Appellant cites no authority for his implied assertion that inadmissible exhibits properly constitute part of the......
-
Corliss v. McGinley
...fundamental tool for appellate review is the official record of the events that occurred in the trial court. Commonwealth v. Williams, 715 A.2d 1101, 1103 (Pa. 1998). To ensure that an appellate court has the necessary records, the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure provide for the t......