Com. v. Williams

• Decision Date: 24 June 1975
• Citation: 235 Pa.Super. 347,341 A.2d 201
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Walter WILLIAMS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 201

341 A.2d 201

235 Pa.Super. 347

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Walter WILLIAMS, Appellant.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

June 24, 1975.

Barnett S. Lotstein, Philadelphia (Court-appointed), for appellant.

Steven H. Goldblatt, Asst. Dist. Atty., Chief, Appeals Div., Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before WATKINS, President Judge, and JACOBS, HOFFMAN, CERCONE, PRICE, VAN der VOORT and SPAETH, JJ.

VAN der VOORT, Judge:

Appeal is taken to this Court from Judge Doty's denial of appellant's petition ¹ for post-conviction relief, following hearing.

Appellant had been indicted, tried before a judge without a jury and sentenced after conviction to five years' probation on a charge of burglary ² and to three to ten years' imprisonment on a charge of aggravated robbery. ³ On a bill of indictment charging carrying firearms on public streets a nolle prosequi was entered. On direct appeal to our Court, at 225 Pa.Super. 751, 307 A.2d 314 (1973), we affirmed the judgment of sentence. On September 13, 1973, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied allowance of further appeal. It is the denial of appellant's subsequent request for post-conviction relief, after an evidentiary hearing, which is presently before us.

Appellant makes but one argument--ineffective counsel at the trial stage. For the reasons that such an argument was not made in appellant's motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment that such an argument is more properly the subject of post-conviction proceedings, that new counsel has been appointed for the post-conviction proceedings, and that the record is complete as it reflects pertinent testimony and judicial opinion regarding appellant's instant arguments, we shall dispose of them ad seriatum. See Commonwealth v. Dancer, --- Pa. ---, 331 A.2d 435 (1975).

Appellant first argues that at trial prejudice obtained to his defense because his counsel permitted testimony to be heard that photographs which aided the victim in identifying appellant were pictures of members of a much-criticized political organization. Appellant adopts the position that his counsel should have made timely objection to such testimony in order to preserve it for possible appeal. We hold that appellant was not prejudiced because the testimony of the police officer who testified that he conducted the photographic array is devoid of any reference that the individuals of said political organization had been convicted of criminal activity and that appellant had been a party thereto. Testimony of Detective McCarty was that 'he (the victim, one Mr. Bowie) was taken to the Police Administration Building and there he viewed files of known Panther members in the City of Philadelphia; and he selected the photo of the defendant, Walter Williams, as positively involved in the holdup that evening.' ⁴ Without testimony that the subjects of the photographs were convicted criminals, we do not find prejudice to appellant and cannot say that counsel should have objected due to our conviction that such objection, had it been made, would not have been sustained.

In appellant's direct appeal to our Court, No. 621 October Term, 1972, the issue was raised as to whether the testimony regarding the juxtaposition of appellant's photo and those of politically-active others was harmful as a violation of due process. This substantive question was decided adversely to appellant by our affirmance of the judgment of sentence at 225 Pa.Super. 751, 307 A.2d 314 (1973). Whether trial counsel should have objected at any point to these photographs is a question different from that which we addressed above, even though both are founded on the same evidence.

Secondly, appellant argues that the line-up wherein appellant was identified was unduly suggestive in that the physical...