Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Henry Daniels, Appellee; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Henry…

Summary

The court held that the Commonwealth's appeal was timely because the trial court properly vacated its earlier order within the statutory period and entered a later final order. It vacated the PCRA court's grant of new trials, concluding that appellees failed to establish prejudice from counsel's handling of the cause-of-death evidence and that the jury instructions, considered as a whole, adequately addressed accomplice liability and specific intent. The court also rejected the unpreserved Batson-based claim under the applicable collateral-review standard and remanded for a written disposition of all remaining PCRA claims. Justice Saylor, concurring, would not endorse ex parte practice as normative and disagreed with the majority's jury-instruction analysis but joined the result based on precedent.