Commonwealth v. Hill

Citation104 A.3d 1220
Decision Date21 November 2014
Docket NumberNo. 99 MAP 2012,99 MAP 2012
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Elton Eugene HILL, Appellee.

Alisa Rebecca Hobart, Esq., Berks County District Attorney's Office, for Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association, amicus curiae.

Francis T. Chardo, III, Esq., Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, Edward Michael Marsico Jr., Esq., for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Walter Crisp, Esq., Harrisburg, for Elton Eugene Hill.

CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, STEVENS, JJ.

OPINION

Chief Justice CASTILLE.

In this Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”)1 appeal, we consider a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel relative to counsel's failure to seek suppression of an inculpatory post-polygraph statement made subsequent to a pre-polygraph counseled waiver of the federal constitutional rights afforded under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The PCRA court below denied relief. A divided Superior Court reversed and remanded in a 2–1 decision, in the process adopting and applying a test for measuring Miranda waivers devised by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit after the trial in this matter. The panel majority held that: appellee's pre-polygraph Miranda waiver did not encompass the post-polygraph interview; the Commonwealth failed to prove that appellee validly waived his Sixth Amendment right to counsel for the post-polygraph interview; appellee's trial counsel lacked a reasonable basis for failing to seek suppression of the statement; and the admission of the statement at trial was prejudicial. We accepted review because the Superior Court's approach led to an underlying merits holding—that federal law may require a second set of Miranda warnings and a second Miranda waiver before police may conduct a post-polygraph interview—that presents an important issue of first impression. For reasons that follow, we hold that the Superior Court's approach was flawed in multiple respects, requiring a remand to that court to reconsider the ineffectiveness claim under the proper review paradigm. Accordingly, we vacate the order of the Superior Court and remand for reconsideration of the issue consistently with this Opinion, and for consideration of appellee's remaining appellate issue.

Because the issue involves a failure to seek suppression, there is no pre-trial suppression hearing record. The courts below focused on competing factual accounts, including appellee's testimony, offered at the PCRA hearing, without looking to the trial record; the parties' appellate presentation to this Court has a similar focus. However, because appellee's various statements to police were introduced at trial, the trial transcript also includes substantial evidence relevant to the circumstances surrounding those statements. The failure to recognize relevant evidence in the trial record contributed to the Superior Court's ultimate legal error, as we will explain. Given these circumstances, we must begin with a factual and procedural overview essential to obtain an accurate understanding of the merits issue.

I.

The trial evidence, which included various statements appellee made to police investigators as well as appellee's own testimony, established that after leaving a party in the early morning hours of April 18, 1998, appellee and James Purcell engaged in a pattern of destructive behavior which included Purcell using a baseball bat to smash mailboxes while leaning from the front-passenger-side window of appellee's vehicle, as appellee drove the vehicle. At some point in their travels, appellee passed the home of a family (the victims) in Dauphin County, and appellee told Purcell that he would not mind assaulting the victims' teenage son. Thereafter, appellee and Purcell returned to the residence and stood outside of the victims' home, appellee handed Purcell the baseball bat, and Purcell proceeded to enter the home.

At that time, the wife and two young children, 5 and 2 years of age, were asleep in the master bedroom. The husband earlier had retired to sleep in another room. Purcell eventually entered the master bedroom, where he awoke the wife and terrorized her by threatening to assault her sleeping children. Purcell began to rape the wife as she pleaded with him not to hurt her children.

Awakened by the commotion and the sound of appellee's car outside, the husband came to his wife's defense, attacking Purcell as he struggled to pull his pants up. The husband beat Purcell into submission and dragged him from the bedroom, not wanting to kill him in front of the children. The victims' teenage son then assisted his father, wielding a baseball bat of his own. As the son stood over Purcell, the husband ran outside in search of other possible intruders, given the sound of appellee's car and the fact that the husband thought he had heard more than one strange voice in his house. The husband then saw appellee, age 17 at the time,2 sitting in a car positioned at the bottom of the driveway, with its engine running, and headlights turned off. Appellee fled upon seeing the husband, who then pursued appellee in his own vehicle. Appellee eluded the husband and then attempted to run him off the road by driving head-on at the husband's car at a high rate of speed. The husband then returned to his home and the police arrived shortly thereafter and arrested Purcell.

The following morning, based on information received from Purcell, Derry Township police officers went to appellee's home to interview him. According to the trial testimony of Detective Daniel Kelly, the detective sergeant in charge of the criminal investigation section of the Derry Township Police Department, appellee told police that on his way home the night before, he dropped Purcell off in front of the victims' home, that appellee never saw Purcell with a bat, and that there was never any bat in appellee's car.

Two days later, on April 21, 1998, detectives, including Detective Kelly again, returned to appellee's home. Detective Kelly asked appellee to meet him at the police station and appellee agreed and followed the detectives in his own vehicle. Upon arrival, police escorted him to an interrogation room to wait for his parents, who were not home when the detectives invited appellee to the station.

The accounts concerning appellee's ensuing interactions with, and statements to, the police are found in both the trial record and the PCRA proceedings. Appellee testified at the PCRA hearing that, when he arrived at the police station, he was seated in a small room with the door closed and was made to empty his pockets. He testified to a subjective belief that he did not have the ability to leave, that he waited for “a couple of hours” before his parents arrived, and that he was not questioned by police prior to his parents' arrival. Appellee conceded, however, that the room had two doors and that when he had to use the bathroom he may have opened the door himself and, upon leaving the bathroom, he walked directly back to the interview room. Appellee also acknowledged that he was not handcuffed, shackled, or otherwise physically restrained in any way. Appellee claimed that, before his parents arrived, he asked police, “Why are you keeping me here?” and police responded: We're holding you here until your parents arrive so we can ask you some questions or question you.” N.T., 4/25/06, at 63–65, 69.

In his own PCRA testimony, Detective Kelly stated that the room in which appellee waited had two doors: a door to the hallway which remained open, and a door to the lock-up/booking area which remained closed to keep juveniles separate from adult offenders. Detective Kelly explained that appellee was neither restrained nor kept under guard, and that he was never told he was not free to leave, albeit police also did not specifically inform appellee that he had the right to leave.

After appellee's parents arrived, Detective Kelly advised them and appellee of appellee's Miranda rights. At the PCRA hearing, appellee claimed that: “When he got to the part about the attorney, we asked, I believe my father or my mother asked, and I asked, both, for an attorney.... We specifically said if we have the right to one, we would like one.” Appellee said that the police response was “No,” and “you don't need an attorney at this point.” Id. at 66–67. Appellee's father, also testifying during PCRA proceedings, confirmed: “I indicated we wanted a lawyer.” Id. at 94. Appellee further testified that he did not sign the Miranda waiver form presented to him because: “Well, I kind of thought I needed an attorney. They told me I had ... the right to an attorney and then they told me I couldn't have one.” Id. at 67. Detective Kelly's PCRA testimony specifically contradicted appellee and his father, as he testified that appellee never invoked his right to silence or his right to counsel.

Appellee and his parents then spoke privately before appellee's father invited the detectives back into the room and, according to Detective Kelly, the parents indicated that they understood the rights and were willing to allow police to speak to appellee without the presence of an attorney. Appellee's father admitted to signing a “Constitutional Rights Notice” consenting to the interview, but stated that at some later point, he refused to sign the Miranda Waiver form. Appellee's father was present when appellee was questioned and, he admitted, “the questions they asked him, I did consent to.” Id. at 94–97. For his part, Detective Kelly testified that the Constitutional Rights Notice and the “Waiver of Rights Miranda Warnings form were actually two parts of the same document; appellee's parents signed the document where Detective Kelly requested they sign; and the failure to have them sign a second time at the bottom of the same form was merely his error and, in any event, the second part of the form is...

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