Com. v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 19 January 1995
• Citation: 649 A.2d 435,538 Pa. 485
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Zachary WILSON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 435

649 A.2d 435

538 Pa. 485

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

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 5, 1992.

Decided Nov. 9, 1994.

Reargument Denied Jan. 19, 1995.

[538 Pa. 494] George Henry Newman, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Gaele McLaughlin Barthold, Deputy Dist. Atty., Arlene Fisk, Asst. Dist. Atty., Kathy L. Echternach, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS and CAPPY, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

This is a direct appeal from a sentence of death ¹ imposed by the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. Following a trial by jury, Appellant, Zachary Wilson, was convicted of first degree murder ² and possession of an instrument of crime. ³ The jury found two aggravating circumstances ⁴ and no mitigating circumstances and therefore sentenced Appellant to death.

In accordance with the standard established in Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 26-27 n. 3, 454 A.2d 937, 942 n. 3 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983), this Court must independently review the sufficiency of the evidence which supports a first degree murder conviction regardless of whether Appellant specifically makes such a challenge. The test for determining sufficiency is whether the evidence admitted at trial, and all reasonable inferences derived therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, is sufficient to establish all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Commonwealth v. Carpenter, 511 Pa. 429, 435, 515 A.2d 531, 533-34 (1986). Based upon our review of the record, we find sufficient evidence to sustain Appellant's conviction.

At approximately 1:15 p.m. on August 3, 1981, Appellant entered Marty's Sweet Joy Lounge located at Allegheny Avenue and 24th Street in the City of Philadelphia. Appellant pulled a gun from under his coat as he walked past several patrons sitting at the bar. He aimed the gun at the victim, Jamie Lamb, who was sitting at the rear of the bar. After shooting the victim four times, Appellant fled the scene. The victim subsequently died from injuries caused by multiple gunshot wounds.

A Commonwealth witness, Jeffrey Rahming, was in rear of the bar, standing just behind the victim when the shooting started. Rahming saw Appellant enter the bar, aim the gun at the victim, and shoot the gun.

A second Commonwealth witness, Edward Jackson, was sitting at the front of the bar when Appellant entered. He, as well as many other patrons, dove to the floor as the gunfire began. When Appellant rushed to leave the bar, he tripped over Jackson and fell to the floor. Jackson and Appellant came face to face before Appellant scrambled to his feet and ran out of the bar.

Jeffrey Rahming later identified Appellant in a police lineup, and as a result, Appellant was charged with first degree murder. Following a preliminary hearing in 1982, Appellant was released because both Rahming and Edward Jackson failed to identify him during the proceeding.

In 1986, charges were reinstituted against Appellant when an individual named Lawrence Gainer agreed to testify at a second preliminary hearing. The substance of Gainer's testimony was that Appellant had admitted to him that he killed Jamie Lamb because he thought Lamb was involved in the death of Appellant's cousin. In addition to Gainer's testimony, both Edward Jackson and Jeffrey Rahming gave statements indicating that they had been threatened in 1981 and 1982 to change their identifications.

At trial, Edward Jackson positively identified Appellant as the man that he saw enter the bar and shoot Jamie Lamb. N.T. 1/5/88, 49-53, 66. Jackson also testified that he purposely identified the wrong person at the 1982 police lineup because he and his family had been threatened with harm. ⁵ N.T. 1/5/88, 57-59. He further testified that he changed his place of residence in early 1982 out of fear that he or his family might be harmed. N.T. 1/5/88, 56-57.

Jeffrey Rahming also testified at Appellant's trial. He testified that he was standing right behind Jamie Lamb at the time that Lamb was shot. N.T. 1/5/88, 102-04. Rahming also positively identified Appellant as the perpetrator. N.T. 1/5/88, 104-05. In addition, Rahming testified that although he did not know Appellant's name, he had known Appellant all his life "by his face" and recognized him on the day that he entered the bar and shot Jamie Lamb. N.T. 1/5/88, 104-06. Rahming testified that he recognized Appellant at the preliminary hearing held in 1982, but refused to identify him as the person who shot Jamie Lamb because he was told not to be a witness and had been threatened with physical harm. N.T. 1/5/88, 108-12.

In addition to the eyewitnesses, the Commonwealth presented the testimony of Lawrence Gainer. In October of 1983, Gainer and Appellant were temporarily housed together at the Philadelphia Detention Center. Although Gainer initially did not want to get involved, he later agreed to testify in 1986 after a chance encounter with an acquaintance in the Philadelphia Police Department, Officer John Fleming. N.T. 1/6/88, 34-37. At trial, Gainer testified that Appellant admitted that he killed Jamie Lamb because he thought that Lamb had killed his cousin. N.T. 1/6/88, 31.

When viewed in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner, the testimony of Edward Jackson, Jeffrey Rahming, and Lawrence Gainer was clearly sufficient to support Appellant's conviction for first degree murder. Having determined that the record contains sufficient evidence to convict, we now turn to Appellant's claims of ineffectiveness of trial counsel as well as his allegations of defects in the proceeding below.

RACIAL BIAS IN JURY SELECTION

Appellant alleges that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to strike black venirepersons from the jury. ⁶ In support of this claim, he cites Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), in which the United States Supreme Court held that the use of peremptory challenges to purposefully remove prospective jurors on the basis of their race, violates the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution.

Appellant claims that the Commonwealth used between ten and twelve peremptory challenges to strike black persons from the jury. He asserts that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor's use of these peremptory challenges and for failing to request that the prosecutor state her reasons for striking prospective black jurors. Appellant therefore requests that the judgment of sentence be vacated and the matter be remanded for a hearing on the ineffectiveness of trial counsel.

In order to prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Appellant must show: the claim is of arguable merit; there was no reasonable basis for counsel's actions; and that those actions prejudicially affected the outcome of his case. Commonwealth v. Pierce, 515 Pa. 153, 158-59, 527 A.2d 973, 975 (1987). There is a presumption that trial counsel was effective, and Appellant bears the burden of establishing counsel's ineffectiveness. Commonwealth v. Miller, 494 Pa. 229, 233, 431 A.2d 233, 234-35 (1981). In addition, counsel cannot be deemed ineffective for failing to raise a meritless claim. Commonwealth v. Pettus, 492 Pa. 558, 563, 424 A.2d 1332, 1335 (1981).

In analyzing Appellant's ineffectiveness claim, we must first determine whether there is merit to the assertion that trial counsel should have objected and required the district attorney to provide race-neutral reasons for her use of peremptory challenges to strike black venirepersons from the jury. In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), the United States Supreme Court set forth the standard for making a prima facie showing of purposeful discrimination in the jury selection process. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-23, 90 L.Ed.2d at 87-88. First, the defendant must show that he is a member of a cognizable racial group and that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to remove prospective jurors of the same racial group. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-23, 90 L.Ed.2d at 87. Second, the defendant may rely upon the fact that the use of peremptory challenges constitutes a practice that allows " 'those to discriminate who are of a mind to discriminate.' " Id. (quoting Avery v. Georgia, 345 U.S. 559, 562, 73 S.Ct. 891, 892-93, 97 L.Ed. 1244, 1247 (1953)). Finally, the defendant must show that these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors on the basis of their race. Id. 476 U.S. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-23, 90 L.Ed.2d at 87-88.

Once the defendant makes a prima facie showing, the burden shifts to the prosecution to provide a race-neutral explanation for challenging the jurors in question. Id. at 97, 106 S.Ct. at 1723, 90 L.Ed.2d at 88. The Supreme Court emphasized that

the prosecutor's explanation need not rise to the level justifying exercise of a challenge for cause. But the prosecutor may not rebut the defendant's prima facie case of discrimination by stating merely that he challenged jurors of the defendant's race on the assumption--or his intuitive judgment--that they would be partial to the defendant because of their shared race.

Id. (citations omitted).

In the instant case, the issue of the prosecutor's alleged discriminatory use of peremptory challenges was not raised during voir dire or post-trial motions and must therefore be raised collaterally through an ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The incompleteness of the record in this case is underscored by the fact that "[t]rial counsel did not establish a record of the composition of the jury, nor the race of the persons struck by the...