Com. v. Yarris

• Decision Date: 21 May 1999
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Nicholas YARRIS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

731 A.2d 581

557 Pa. 12

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Nicholas YARRIS, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted December 29, 1998.

Decided May 21, 1999.

Robert Brett Dunham, Philadelphia, for N. Yarris.

Sheldon Kovak, Robert A. Graci, Harrisburg, for the Com.

Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO, NEWMAN and SAYLOR, JJ.

OPINION

SAYLOR, Justice.

This is an appeal from the denial of a petition seeking relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546, in a capital case. Concluding that the petition was untimely, we affirm.

I. Background

On July 1, 1982, a jury convicted Appellant, Nicholas Yarris, of kidnapping, rape, robbery, and first degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of Linda Craig, a salesperson at a shopping mall in the state of Delaware, in December of the previous year. Ms. Craig's automobile was found along a roadway in Chichester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on the night of her disappearance, and her severely beaten body was found the next day in a nearby church parking lot. The Commonwealth supported its case against Appellant with scientific evidence based on body fluids, testimony regarding Appellant's suspicious behavior toward Ms. Craig in the week preceding the crime, and incriminating statements made by Appellant to various persons, including a fellow inmate. After finding one aggravating circumstance (namely, that Appellant had committed the killing while perpetrating a felony, 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(d)(6)) which outweighed any mitigating circumstances, the jury returned a verdict of death. Appellant filed post-verdict motions, which were denied, and the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County ("the trial court") formally imposed the sentence of death.

Until this point Appellant had been represented by Samuel Stretton, Esq. ("trial counsel"). After filing a notice of appeal on Appellant's behalf, trial counsel was allowed to withdraw, and the Delaware County Public Defender's Office ("appellate counsel") was appointed to represent Appellant.

On December 27, 1983, Appellant petitioned this Court to remand the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing on two issues: 1) trial counsel's alleged ineffectiveness in failing to present testimony from a mental health expert both to establish Appellant's diminished capacity and as a mitigating factor during sentencing; and 2) the manner in which the Delaware County District Attorney's Office determined whether to seek the death penalty in homicide cases. This Court granted the petition and remanded the case to the trial court on March 15, 1984. After several delays caused by the inability of the court-appointed psychiatrist to examine Appellant, the trial court scheduled the evidentiary hearing for February 20, 1985. However, while Appellant was being transported from the State Correctional Institution in Huntingdon to Delaware County for the hearing, he escaped. Upon petition of the Commonwealth, and because the hearing could not be held in Appellant's absence, the trial court returned the record to this Court so that consideration of Appellant's direct appeal could proceed.¹

In December of 1986, after oral argument, this Court again remanded the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing, but directed that such hearing be limited to claims of ineffectiveness related to sentencing. After holding an evidentiary hearing as directed, the trial court dismissed Appellant's ineffectiveness claims. This Court affirmed the judgment of sentence in Commonwealth v. Yarris, 519 Pa. 571, 549 A.2d 513 (1988) ("Yarris I"), cert. denied, 491 U.S. 910, 109 S.Ct. 3201, 105 L.Ed.2d 708 (1989).

The subsequent procedural history of the case is, as this Court has previously observed, "somewhat involved." Commonwealth v. Yarris, 543 Pa. 309, 311, 671 A.2d 218, 218 (1995) ("Yarris II"). Because it bears upon our review of the present appeal, we will summarize it here.

In February of 1989, the trial court permitted appellate counsel to withdraw from the case and appointed Scott D. Galloway, Esq. ("post-conviction counsel"), to represent Appellant.

At an undetermined point in 1989, Appellant purportedly filed a pro se document entitled "Motion for a New Trial for Newly Discovered Evidence and Unlawful/Intentional Destruction of Exculpatory Evidence," in which he argued that the Commonwealth had improperly withheld from the defense a pair of gloves found at the murder scene and had subsequently used the gloves at trial without first introducing them into evidence. This motion was not entered on the trial court docket, however, and neither the trial judge nor the District Attorney had any record of having received such a motion. Appellant subsequently filed with this Court a pro se petition for review asking that the trial court be compelled to act on the allegedly outstanding motion for a new trial. This Court quashed the petition for review upon motion of the Commonwealth.

Also in 1989, Appellant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The federal district court dismissed the petition on December 20, 1989, for failure to exhaust state remedies.

On January 4, 1991, post-conviction counsel filed, in the trial court, a motion for a new trial that was identical to Appellant's earlier, pro se motion of the same type. For reasons that are unclear, this motion was not docketed or acted upon by the trial court. Accordingly, Appellant refiled his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court. As it had before, the district court dismissed the petition for failure to exhaust state remedies. Appellant appealed the dismissal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. On October 12, 1993, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the matter to the district court to determine whether there had been an unreasonable delay in the consideration of Appellant's claims by the trial court. The Commonwealth responded to this development by petitioning the trial court to schedule a hearing on the claims raised in the motion for a new trial. In an order entered February 8, 1994, the trial court granted the Commonwealth's request and scheduled the hearing for April 6, 1994. The court also directed Appellant to file, within 10 days, a written statement specifying any other issues that he believed to be outstanding or that he desired to raise before the court, and to be prepared on April 6 "to proceed on every such issue."

Appellant did not file a statement specifying additional issues to be raised. At the hearing on April 6, 1994, post-conviction counsel requested a continuance on the grounds that he had been unable to communicate effectively with Appellant owing to Appellant's incarceration, and thus had just learned of certain witnesses whom Appellant wished to call. The trial court denied the request, noting that Appellant and his counsel had been given almost two months to prepare for the hearing and that the Commonwealth was prepared to call the witnesses requested by Appellant. The court also stated that the motion for a new trial should properly be considered a petition for relief pursuant to the PCRA. At the conclusion of the hearing, after having made clear that the only claims being decided at that time were those that had been raised in the motion for a new trial, the court concluded that Appellant had failed to prove that he was entitled to relief under the PCRA.

Appellant, through post-conviction counsel, appealed to this Court, arguing that the trial court had erred in denying the request for a continuance, in characterizing his motion for a new trial as a claim for relief under the PCRA, and in denying such motion.² On December 29, 1995, this Court affirmed the trial court in all respects. See Yarris II. The Court also made the following observation:

Although Appellant would have us believe that the trial court's ruling has foreclosed him from pursuing any future claims for relief under the PCRA, our review of the record belies such an implication. Notwithstanding the fact that Appellant was afforded the opportunity to raise any and all issues that he believed warranted relief, the court specifically stated that it was denying only the specific claims presented in Appellant's Motion for a New Trial[,] as evidenced by the [trial court's statement that "I'm ruling on what is here now, and that's it"].

Id. at 315 n. 8, 671 A.2d at 221 n. 8.

On December 16, 1996, Appellant, now represented by attorneys from the Center for Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Assistance ("present counsel"), filed another petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court. Shortly thereafter, on January 10, 1997, Appellant filed the post-conviction petition that is now at issue.³ The trial court heard argument on the issues raised in the petition, which it deemed to be Appellant's second such petition, and denied relief on June 19, 1998, without having held an evidentiary hearing.⁴ This appeal followed.

II. Status of the Present Appeal

We begin our analysis by addressing the procedural status of this appeal. First, we consider Appellant's contention that it was error for the trial court, at the hearing on April 6, 1994, to sua sponte deem his petition for a new trial to be a petition for relief pursuant to the PCRA.

This issue is no longer open to review. In Yarris II, Appellant argued, as he does here, that "the trial court erroneously characterized his Motion for a New Trial as a post conviction proceeding under the PCRA...." Id. at 314, 671 A.2d at 220. This Court concluded that Appellant had failed to demonstrate that the trial court's ruling was erroneous. That conclusion is the law of the case. The law of the case doctrine provides, in pertinent part, that "upon a second appeal, an appellate court may not alter the resolution of a legal question previously decided by the...