 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Commonwealth v. Brown4/29/2005
monwealth v. Basemore, 560 Pa. 258, 290, 744 A.2d 717, 735 (2000) ("Obviously, . . . different light falls upon counsel's performance depending upon whether he asked and was not told, or he did not ask and therefore was not told."). The relevant question simply cannot be answered without exploring, inter alia, what avenues counsel pursued to develop mitigation evidence, including what questions counsel asked of his client.
The majority also offers a brief assessment concerning the prejudice prong of the ineffectiveness inquiry that affords no express comparison between the evidence presented at the penalty phase of trial and that which Appellant seeks to develop on post-conviction review that, and thus, lacks a reasoned accounting for the qualitative aspect of the capital sentencing process. Compare Majority Opinion, slip op. at 16 (reasoning that Appellant was not prejudiced by trial counsel's performance during the penalty phase because "the jury found the mitigating circumstance that Appellant acted under extreme mental or emotional disturbance and the catchall mitigating circumstance of other evidence of mitigation."), with Commonwealth v. Brown, 538 Pa. 410, 429, 648 A.2d 1177, 1186 (1994) (explaining that the weight of the evidence presented, and not the ability to "count" any particular mitigator, is the dispositive factor in the death penalty statute's qualitative approach to the selection in capital sentencing). Again, other jurisdictions recognize the potential that the sort of mental-health mitigation that Appellant has proffered was omitted from his trial by virtue of his counsel's inadequate preparation may be deemed by jurors to be of substantial weight in the sentencing equation. See supra notes 2 and 3. Indeed, some have done so by way of explicit contrast to the sort of generalized "humanizing" evidence alluded to by the majority. Compare Majority Opinion, slip op. at 16 (relying upon trial counsel's having offered mitigation evidence portraying Appellant as a "caring friend and neighbor" to foreclose a hearing concerning Appellant's post-conviction proffer of evidence of major mental health illness), with Allen, 366 F.3d at 850-51 (explaining the substantial difference between generalized "humanizing" evidence and evidence which tends to explain or afford some context to the defendant's criminal behavior -- "the mitigation evidence proffered by [the defendant], which consisted primarily of testimony that at some points in his life [the defendant] had been nice to some people and that some people cared for him, is not of the same 'quantity and quality' as that which supported our decision in Mayfield[, a case involving, inter alia, substantial life-history and mental-health related mitigation], and could not have 'humanized' him during the time frame of the murder conspiracy at issue."); id. ("We have rarely granted habeas relief based solely upon humanizing, rather than explanatory, mitigation evidence in the face of extensive aggravating circumstances). Moreover, and again, the majority's failure in its prejudice assessment to engage in any explicit comparison of the penalty-phase presentation with that which is offered on post-conviction review is contrary to precedent. See, e.g., Malloy, ___ Pa. at ___, 856 A.2d at 789 (explaining that "in considering whether appellant was prejudiced we must consider not only the evidence and argument presented at the penalty phase, but also the evidence and argument that would have been presented at the penalty hearing had trial counsel properly investigated such evidence" (emphasis in original)).
Finally, the majority would simply accept the PCRA court's credibility determination (made without the benefit of hearing the witnesses) that counsels'
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Pennsylvania DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|