Commonwealth v. Sneed

• Decision Date: 04 June 2012
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Willie Edward SNEED, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

45 A.3d 1096

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee

v.Willie Edward SNEED, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted July 26, 2011.

Decided June 4, 2012.

Victor J. Abreu, Jr., Federal Public Defender's Office, Billy Horatio Nolas, Defender Association of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, for Willie Edward Sneed.

Hugh J. Burns, Philadelphia, Amy Zapp, PA Office of Attorney General, Harrisburg, for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, ORIE MELVIN, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

This is an appeal from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County denying Appellant Willie Sneed's petition seeking relief pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541–9546. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the order of the PCRA court.

On October 13, 1980, Appellant fatally shot Calvin Hawkins (“Hawkins”) after discovering that Hawkins and two accomplices sold him aspirin instead of cocaine.¹ A jury convicted Appellant of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime on March 14, 1985.² During the penalty phase, the jury found two aggravating circumstances and no mitigating circumstances,³ resulting in the imposition of a sentence of death. ⁴ We affirmed on direct appeal, Commonwealth v. Sneed, 514 Pa. 597, 526 A.2d 749 (1987), and Appellant did not seek review before the United States Supreme Court.

On January 16, 1997, Appellant filed a timely pro se PCRA petition.⁵ For unknown reasons, Appellant was not appointed counsel, and the PCRA petition was never reviewed. On July 12, 1999, then-Governor Thomas Ridge issued a warrant scheduling Appellant's execution for September 14, 1999. Newly appointed counsel filed an emergency motion for a stay of execution on July 22, 1999. The PCRA court granted the motion and ordered counsel to file an amended PCRA petition.

On April 12, 2000, Appellant filed an amended PCRA petition raising twenty-five claims of error. The Commonwealth filed a motion to dismiss, and the PCRA court granted an evidentiary hearing on two issues: (1) whether the prosecutor at the 1985 trial violated Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), by using peremptory strikes in a racially discriminatory manner; ⁶ and (2) whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to develop and present mitigating evidence at the penalty hearing. Notably, the PCRA court did not rule on Appellant's other claims of error. ⁷

On January 4, 2002, following several days of evidentiary hearings, the PCRA court found merit to Appellant's claims. Accordingly, the court granted Appellant a new trial based on the Batson claim and a new penalty hearing based on the ineffectiveness claim. The Commonwealth appealed, challenging both grants of relief.⁸

This Court reversed in part and affirmed in part. Commonwealth v. Sneed, 587 Pa. 318, 899 A.2d 1067 (2006). Batson was decided while Appellant's direct appeal was pending and we noted that Appellant was entitled to Batson 's retroactive benefit only if he anticipated, raised, and preserved a Batson claim at trial and on direct appeal. Since he did not, we held that any “ Batson qua Batson claim,” such as that which the PCRA court erroneously deemed both cognizable and meritorious on collateral attack, was waived under the PCRA, and Appellant could proceed only via a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel claim. We explained that counsel could not be faulted “for failing to raise a Batson objection at trial because Batson did not yet exist.” We reasoned, however, that even if counsel could be faulted for failing to anticipate the Batson rule, there were “practical hurdles that would have derailed such an endeavor.” Sneed, 899 A.2d at 1075–76. We concluded:

[The] trial record contained no Batson objection, no argument, no finding of a prima facie case, no statement of reasons for strikes in the face of a finding of a prima facie case, and no assessment of the credibility of those reasons. The PCRA court's finding of ineffectiveness failed to accord any deference to the presumption of effectiveness, or the fact that Batson was a new rule. Because the award of a new trial is unsustainable under Batson,.... we vacate the order below granting a new trial.

Id. at 1077 (emphasis in original).

This Court affirmed the PCRA court's grant of a new penalty hearing based on counsel's failure to present mitigation evidence, explaining that trial counsel had an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation into Appellant's background. Such an investigation would have revealed that Appellant experienced an abusive and dysfunctional childhood from which he continued to suffer mental health effects. We stated: “[I]f the jury had heard testimony and argument regarding the mitigation evidence presented by [Appellant] at the PCRA hearing, there is a reasonable probability that at least one juror would have struck a different balance and voted not to impose the death penalty.” Id. at 1084. Since Appellant was denied the effective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase, we affirmed the grant of a new penalty hearing.

Prior to the scheduling of the new penalty hearing, Appellant requested that the PCRA court address his allegations of guilt phase error that were raised in the amended petition but never reviewed. On November 16, 2006, the PCRA court held a hearing at which Appellant argued that while the court reviewed two of his claims, it did not rule on the other allegations of guilt phase error and was required to do so prior to the penalty hearing. See Commonwealth v. Bryant, 566 Pa. 307, 780 A.2d 646 (2001). The Commonwealth countered that in granting a hearing limited to the Batson and penalty phase ineffectiveness claims, the court rejected as meritless all other allegations of error. The PCRA court scheduled a hearing for December 28, 2006, to determine the status of the remaining PCRA claims. On that date, the PCRA court orally denied the remaining guilt phase claims without holding an evidentiary hearing. ⁹

Appellant appealed, and the PCRA court issued an opinion on March 14, 2007. Appellant then sought review before this Court. On December 13, 2007, we quashed the appeal because the order was not “entered on the docket.” ¹⁰ Order, 12/13/07, at 1. Neither party took any further action until October 9, 2009, when Appellant requested that the PCRA court resolve the matter.¹¹ The PCRA court entered an order dismissing the remaining claims on October 21, 2009. Appellant subsequently filed the instant appeal.

Before turning to the substance of Appellant's claims, we address the procedural posture of this case. In his amended PCRA petition, Appellant raised twenty-five claims of error. The PCRA court conducted a hearing on two of these claims. As noted in our 2006 decision, the PCRA court did not pass on the other claims raised. Sneed, 899 A.2d at 1071. Indeed, the parties agree that the PCRA court never issued an order dismissing or denying the remaining claims. N.T., 11/16/06, at 5, 13–14. Since these remaining allegations of error were never resolved, review by the PCRA court at the present stage was appropriate.¹²See Commonwealth v. Williams, 557 Pa. 207, 732 A.2d 1167, 1192–93 (1999) (Castille, J., concurring) (emphasizing importance of meaningful opinion “which addresses all the relevant issues and which states the court's reasons for denying relief”); Commonwealth v. Fletcher, 586 Pa. 527, 896 A.2d 508, 523 (2006) (remanding to PCRA court to address any unresolved claims necessary for final disposition and to prepare written opinion).

Likewise, we ascertain no error in the PCRA court's decision to address the outstanding guilt phase claims prior to conducting a new penalty hearing. In Bryant, supra, this Court held that review of a PCRA court's decision denying guilt phase relief should precede the imposition of a new sentence: “Re-sentencing the defendant before engaging in appellate review of the denial of PCRA relief ... results in piecemeal litigation, delay in the determination of guilt phase issues, and potential misuse of judicial resources if the new sentence is rendered moot by subsequent disposition of guilt phase issues.” 780 A.2d at 648;see also Commonwealth v. Collins, 585 Pa. 45, 888 A.2d 564, 568 (2005). Thus, the PCRA court followed an appropriate course of action by resolving the outstanding guilt phase claims prior to conducting the new penalty hearing.

We now turn to the substance of Appellant's PCRA challenges. “On appeal from the denial of PCRA relief, our standard of review is whether the findings of the PCRA court are supported by the record and free of legal error.” Commonwealth v. Abu–Jamal, 574 Pa. 724, 833 A.2d 719, 723 (2003), cert. denied,541 U.S. 1048, 124 S.Ct. 2173, 158 L.Ed.2d 742 (2004) (citing Commonwealth v. Breakiron, 566 Pa. 323, 781 A.2d 94, 97 n. 4 (2001)). We must determine whether the PCRA court's denial of relief by dismissing Appellant's remaining guilt phase claims without an evidentiary hearing was proper.

In order to be eligible for relief, a PCRA petitioner must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that his conviction or sentence resulted from one or more of the enumerated circumstances found in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(2)¹³ and that the allegation of error has not been previously litigated or waived. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(3). A claim is previously litigated under the PCRA if the highest appellate court in which the petitioner was entitled to review as a matter of right has ruled on the merits of the issue. 42 Pa.C.S. § 9544(a)(2). An allegation is deemed waived “if the petitioner could have raised it but failed to do so before trial, at trial, on appeal or in a prior state post-conviction proceeding.” 42 Pa.C.S. § 9544(b).

Under Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 909, the PCRA court has the discretion to dismiss a petition without a hearing when the court is satisfied “that there are...