Commonwealth v. Haun

• Decision Date: 30 November 2011
• Citation: 32 A.3d 697
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Raymond E. HAUN, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

32 A.3d 697

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant

v.Raymond E. HAUN, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted May 4, 2011.Decided Nov. 30, 2011.

Nathan Lee Boob, Centre County District Attorney's Office, Elizabeth Ann Hunt, State College, Stacy Parks Miller, Centre County District Attorney's Office, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

David R. Crowley, Bellefonte, for Raymond E. Haun.

Jules Epstein, Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg, Philadelphia, Peter David Goldberger, Law Office of Peter Goldberger, Ardmore, Thomas M. Place, for Appellee Amicus Curiae, PA Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, ORIE MELVIN, JJ.

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

The question presented is whether a concession of guilt, per se, forecloses prisoner access to review under the Post Conviction Relief Act. In effect, the Commonwealth asks that we revisit the rationale from our opinion in Commonwealth v. Lantzy, 558 Pa. 214, 736 A.2d 564 (1999) (“ Lantzy II ”), and adopt the reasoning from the Superior Court decision which it reversed. See Commonwealth v. Lantzy, 712 A.2d 288 (Pa.Super.1998) ( en banc ) (“ Lantzy I ”), rev'd, Lantzy II, 558 Pa. at 214, 736 A.2d at 564.

I. Background

A. Key Statutory and Decisional Law

As noted, this case concerns the construction of Post Conviction Relief Act, 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541–9546, or the PCRA, as it relates to claims of deficient attorney stewardship impacting a defendant's trial and/or appellate rights. There are many good sources of general background information. See, e.g., Thomas M. Place, The Post Conviction Relief Act, Practice and Procedure (PBI Press 2003).

As relevant to the present controversy, the PCRA reflects the General Assembly's core focus on providing a framework for collateral judicial review of innocence-related and legality-of-sentence claims. This is manifested in the opening sentence of Section 9542 of the PCRA, or its “Scope of subchapter” provision. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9542 (“This subchapter provides for an action by which persons convicted of crimes they did not commit and persons serving illegal sentences may obtain collateral relief.”). As it pertains more specifically to attorney ineffectiveness, the Legislature's concern with safeguarding the innocent can be gleaned from the prejudice requirement reposited within Section 9543—entitled “Eligibility for relief”—which sets forth the material requirements for redress. Id. § 9543(a)(2)(ii) (conditioning the availability of statutory post-conviction relief on proof that ineffectiveness “so undermined the truth-determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have taken place”).

The main issue in the Lantzy line of decisions was whether Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)'s prejudice element universally required PCRA petitioners specifically to establish unreliability in the truth-determining process in guilt adjudication as a threshold to relief. See Lantzy I, 712 A.2d at 289, 291. This question was significant, because deficient attorney stewardship may impair a defendant's rights in ways that might not seem, at least facially, to implicate this guilt-or-innocence/truth-determining language. For example, derelictions of counsel may impact sentencing or foreclose appellate review.

In Lantzy I, a divided, en banc Superior Court found that Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)'s prejudice term did require a petitioner to provide evidence that he was wrongfully convicted. See Lantzy I, 712 A.2d at 292. In its analysis, in addition to reviewing Section 9543(a)(2)(ii), the majority also invoked the innocence-illegality term contained in Section 9542's scope-of-subchapter provision. See id. at 291 (relying on Section 9542's opening sentence as evidence that “the purpose of the PCRA is to afford collateral relief only to those individuals convicted of crimes that they did not commit and persons serving illegal sentences” (citing 42 Pa.C.S. § 9542)). Additionally, the majority opined that other avenues were available to vindicate a defendant's rights where he was unable to establish innocence, for example, the conferral of nunc pro tunc relief. See id.

Responding to the majority, the dissenting author, then-President Judge McEwen, developed that Section 9542's innocence focus is not the statute's exclusive aim. Rather, he explained, Section 9542 also prescribes:

The action established in this subchapter shall be the sole means of obtaining collateral relief and encompasses all other common law and statutory remedies for the same purpose that exist when this subchapter takes effect, including habeas corpus and coram nobis.

42 Pa.C.S. § 9542 (emphasis added). Based on this requirement, President Judge McEwen observed, “pursuant to the express directive of the legislature, the PCRA was intended to be the sole vehicle for litigating claims for collateral relief in state court.” Lantzy I, 712 A.2d at 295 (McEwen, P.J., dissenting) (emphasis in original). According to the Lantzy I dissent, the majority's recognition of alternate avenues for collateral relief—made necessary by its narrow construction of Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)—directly contravened the statute's “sole means” mandate. See id. at 299–301. In particular, the dissent viewed the majority's approach as removing a wide category of post-conviction claims from the ambit of the PCRA, thus thwarting the General Assembly's objective of channeling the widest possible range of collateral review through the orderly, controlled process it had designed. See id. In this regard, President Judge McEwen observed that, short of a constitutional amendment, the Legislature could not foreclose habeas corpus review. See id. at 300 (citing Pa. Const. art. I, § 14 (mandating, as a general rule, that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended”)). Finally, the dissent touched on the concepts of structural error and presumed prejudice and provided authority for the proposition that the failure to file a requested direct appeal thwarts the truth-determining process and, thus, meets Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)'s prejudice requirement in any event. See id. at 296–99.

In the ensuing Lantzy II decision, this Court first credited both of the above, competing positions as being thoughtful and reasonable judicial expressions. See Lantzy II, 558 Pa. at 222, 736 A.2d at 569. Nevertheless, we observed, the Court already had disapproved of the substantially bifurcated system of post-conviction review which would flow from a narrow construction of the PCRA's scope. See id. (citing Commonwealth v. Chester, 557 Pa. 358, 733 A.2d 1242 (1999) (acknowledging that Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)'s prejudice requirement could reasonably foster the inference that the enactment was not intended to apply to capital sentencing claims, but concluding that such an interpretation would collide with Section 9542's sole-means directive)).¹ Further, we quoted Chester as follows:

Given that the choice was between a unified statutory procedure or bifurcated review having statutory and common law components, it seems clear that the General Assembly intended to channel all claims requiring review through the framework of the PCRA.Id. at 223, 736 A.2d at 569 (quoting Chester, 557 Pa. at 375, 733 A.2d at 1251). Lantzy II continued:

Chester aligns with President Judge McEwen's dissenting opinion in this case, which harmonized the “guilt or innocence” and “sole means” provisions of the PCRA utilizing essentially the same logic. This reasoning compels the conclusion that the PCRA provides the exclusive remedy for post-conviction claims seeking restoration of appellate rights due to counsel's failure to perfect a direct appeal, since such claims also were cognizable on traditional habeas corpus review.

Id. at 223, 736 A.2d at 570–71 (footnote omitted).

Lantzy II also endorsed President Judge McEwen's analysis reconciling Section 9543(a)(2)(ii)'s prejudice requirement with its analogue under federal constitutional law, per Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and implementing the concept of presumed prejudice relative to a complete denial of counsel. See Lantzy II, 558 Pa. at 224–26, 736 A.2d at 570–71. This Court stated:

Thus, we hold that, where there is an unjustified failure to file a requested direct appeal, the conduct of counsel falls beneath the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal case, denies the accused the assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, as well as the right to direct appeal under Article V, Section 9, and constitutes prejudice for purposes of Section 9543(a)(2)(ii). Therefore, in such circumstances, and where the remaining requirements of the PCRA are satisfied, the petitioner is not required to establish his innocence or demonstrate the merits of the issue or issues which would have been raised on appeal.

* * *

The remedy for the deprivation of this fundamental right of appeal is its restoration.

Id. at 226–28, 736 A.2d at 572–73 (footnote omitted).

Finally, adding perspective to the present controversy, throughout the Lantzy line of decisions, the Commonwealth vigorously opposed the substantially bifurcated system of collateral review which all jurists (majority and dissenting) agreed would result from a narrow construction of the PCRA's scope. See id. at 221–22, 736 A.2d at 568–69.

B. The Present Case

Appellee's convictions are for sexual offenses. His criminal conduct, entailing the abuse of a child, was prolonged and heinous. The resultant judgment of sentence imposes a term of incarceration of 27 to 97 years. Appellee did not seek direct appellate review.

Approximately one year after the convictions, however, Appellee sought relief under the PCRA. In pro se and counseled submissions, he alleged that his trial attorney failed to contest his judgment of sentence by...