Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Kareem Johnson, Appellant

Summary

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed Kareem Johnson's convictions for first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, and possession of an instrument of crime, and his sentence of death, concluding the evidence sufficiently showed a premeditated, concerted shooting of Walter Smith to prevent him from testifying against Clinton Robinson. His challenges to evidentiary rulings and to the weight accorded the DNA and accomplice-witness evidence failed because his brief offered single-sentence arguments without development or citation to authority, and the court declined to formulate his arguments even in a capital case. On the penalty issue, the court held that Roper v. Simmons does not bar executing a defendant who was 18 years and 25 days old at the time of the killing, and its independent review under 42 Pa.C.S. § 9711(h)(3) confirmed support for the § 9711(d)(9) significant-history aggravator and the absence of passion, prejudice, or arbitrary factors. Justice Saylor filed a concurring opinion joining the majority in full while expressing continuing concern about deficient appellate representation of capital defendants and urging supervisory monitoring and legislative attention to adequate funding.