Com. v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 19 November 2004
• Citation: 580 Pa. 439,861 A.2d 919
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Zachary WILSON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

861 A.2d 919

580 Pa. 439

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Zachary WILSON, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted July 25, 2001.

Decided November 19, 2004.

Michael Wiseman, Esq., Ellen Berkowitz, Esq., Philadelphia, for Zachary Wilson.

Catherine Marshall, Esq., Robert A. Graci, Esq., Philadelphia, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BEFORE: CAPPY, C.J., and CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN, SAYLOR, EAKIN and BAER, JJ.

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

This is an appeal in a capital case from an order denying post-conviction relief.

On August 3, 1981, Appellant entered a drinking establishment in the City of Philadelphia, brandished a handgun, and fired four rounds into Jamie Lamb ("Lamb"), killing him. As he was shot, Lamb fell against one of his friends, Jeffrey Rahming ("Rahming"). When Appellant turned to flee, he tripped over Edward Jackson ("Jackson"), who had dived onto the floor during the shooting; while they were on the floor together, Jackson was able to view Appellant's face before he scrambled to his feet and ran outside. Jackson and Rahming provided police with descriptions of what they had witnessed, and in March of 1982, police conducted a lineup with Appellant. Although Rahming identified Appellant as the perpetrator, Jackson did not. Appellant was charged with Lamb's murder; however, at the initial preliminary hearing, Rahming failed to identify Appellant, and the charges were dismissed.

While Appellant was incarcerated for an unrelated offense in October of 1983, a fellow inmate, Lawrence Gainer ("Gainer"), asked him why he had killed Lamb — Appellant responded that he had done so because Lamb had killed Appellant's adopted brother, Ronnie Williams.¹ In the summer of 1984, Gainer related Appellant's admission to Officer John Fleming, but refused to cooperate further. In March of 1986, Gainer again spoke with Officer Fleming concerning Lamb's murder and, on this occasion, agreed to provide a statement to detectives investigating the homicide. As a result, Appellant was re-arrested.

At the ensuing jury trial, the Commonwealth's case centered upon the testimony of Jackson, Rahming, and Gainer. Jackson described the circumstances surrounding the shooting; acknowledged that he told police that he could identify the perpetrator; stated that, although he recognized Appellant in the lineup, he selected another individual because Appellant had threatened him; and explained that he told police of the reason for his actions at the lineup one week before the trial. Jackson then identified Appellant as the individual who shot Lamb. During his testimony, Rahming began by acknowledging his prior criminal record; he then related his observations of Lamb's killing, which he had given to police the day of the incident, and identified Appellant as having committed the crime. Like Jackson, Rahming said that Appellant had threatened him and, as a result, although he had identified Appellant at the lineup, he declined to implicate him at the preliminary hearing. Gainer testified to Appellant's admission and to having related it to Officer Fleming. In addition, both Gainer and his girlfriend, Linda Blakney, indicated that they had received telephone calls from Appellant entreating Gainer not to testify against him, which Blakney interpreted as threatening. Appellant did not testify during the guilt phase, and the sole defense witness was Steven Whitfield, Appellant's fellow prison inmate, who claimed that he had been in the bar at the time of Lamb's killing and had seen the perpetrator, who was not Appellant.

The jury found Appellant guilty, and the case proceeded to a penalty hearing, during which the Commonwealth incorporated the evidence from the guilt phase and offered as aggravating circumstances that, in committing the offense, Appellant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim, see 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(7), and that Appellant had a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence to a person, namely, robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(9). Following inquiry from the trial court, Appellant declined to present testimony from family members related to mitigating circumstances, instead testifying that he did not commit the crime, although he wished that he had, as he believed that the victim had killed his adopted brother. The jury returned a verdict of death, finding both aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances. On direct appeal, new counsel was appointed, raising, inter alia, issues related to after-discovered evidence in the nature of a recantation by Rahming; trial counsel's ineffectiveness in failing to present evidence that Appellant believed that the victim had killed Appellant's adopted brother; and the trial court's penalty-phase instructions, which purportedly did not explain that unanimity was not required in the finding of mitigating circumstances pursuant to the United States Supreme Court decision in Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988). This Court affirmed the judgment of sentence, see Commonwealth v. Wilson, 538 Pa. 485, 520, 649 A.2d 435, 452 (1994), and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. See Wilson v. Pennsylvania, 516 U.S. 850, 116 S.Ct. 145, 133 L.Ed.2d 91 (1995).

On March 11, 1996, Appellant filed a counseled "Petition for Habeas Corpus Relief and Statutory Post-Conviction Relief." See generally 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546 (the "PCRA"). The petition set forth numerous claims of error, including, with respect to the guilt phase of the trial, allegations that trial and appellate counsel were ineffective in failing to challenge the admission of hearsay evidence that improperly bolstered the testimony of Jackson, Rahming, and Gainer, and that the Commonwealth had used perjured testimony and withheld exculpatory and discoverable evidence involving threats and coercion by the police in relation to these same witnesses. As to the penalty phase claims, Appellant averred that: trial counsel had failed to investigate and present certain mitigating evidence, namely, parental and other abuse during childhood and the existence of mental health problems; trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the court's exclusion of relevant mitigating evidence bearing upon Appellant's motive for the killing; the aggravating circumstances concerning creation of a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim of the offense and significant history of felony convictions involving the threat or use of violence are unconstitutionally vague; the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that, if Appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment, he would not be eligible for parole; and the trial court erred in not instructing the jury that unanimity was not required in the finding of mitigating circumstances. In addition, the petition contained a general allegation of ineffectiveness on the part of trial and appellate counsel and asserted that the cumulative effect of each of the asserted errors denied Appellant a fair trial.

Appellant filed numerous affidavits in support of the petition, and the PCRA court conducted hearings from July of 1997 through January of 1998, focusing upon the alleged failure of the Commonwealth to disclose exculpatory evidence, the existence of an alibi,² and the purported failure of trial counsel to investigate and present certain mitigating evidence. Regarding the exculpatory evidence claim, the proofs expanded beyond the allegation in the PCRA petition to include both nondisclosure of a criminal conviction on the part of Jackson and mental health diagnoses for Jackson and Rahming. In this regard, PCRA counsel, relying upon a 1981 pre-sentence investigation for Jackson, elicited that he had been convicted for impersonating a public servant (a police officer), see 18 Pa.C.S. § 4912,³ had suffered two fractured skulls, and had been diagnosed as easily confused and as having a weak memory. Appellant also offered expert testimony regarding Jackson's mental health from a psychiatrist, Julie Kessel, M.D., who reviewed the 1981 psychological evaluation and opined that Jackson would have difficulty recalling events accurately and "confabulates."⁴ Rahming testified, recanting his identification of Appellant as the perpetrator of the homicide,⁵ and acknowledging that he had been diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia; further, contrary to his trial testimony, Rahming admitted to having ingested alcohol, marijuana, and psychotropic medication at the time that he witnessed the shooting. Rahming also claimed that: a detective had offered him cocaine in exchange for his signed statement implicating Appellant; someone in the District Attorney's Office had given him money to sign the statement; and a detective from the District Attorney's Office had taken him to a hospital following his testimony at trial, where he was admitted for a psychiatric evaluation. As with Jackson, Appellant introduced expert testimony from Dr. Kessel, who reviewed Rahming's mental health records and concluded that the psychiatric hospitalization following his testimony at trial suggests that he may not have been able to differentiate reality from delusion.

Appellant also presented witnesses who claimed that: Gainer had admitted to having testified falsely at Appellant's trial; Officer Fleming was aware of a gambling business run by Gainer's father; and Gainer provided information in exchange for police protection of his father's business. In this same vein, Appellant called witnesses who indicated that Officer Fleming harassed and threatened Jackson, Rahming, and Gainer to incriminate Appellant.

Officer Fleming denied knowledge of a gambling business run by Gainer's father and maintained that Gainer had supplied information voluntarily. When questioned as to whether he had ever given money to Gainer,...