Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Imanuel Bassil Ali, A/k/a Emanuel Lester, Appellant

Summary

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Castille with all six other sitting justices joining, affirmed the Philadelphia PCRA court's denial of collateral relief to this death-sentenced capital inmate litigating pro se. The Court resolved twelve layered ineffective-assistance claims under the Strickland/Pierce three-prong test, finding each devoid of arguable merit, waived, or — where merit was assumed for the in-court child-witness competency examination — lacking any reasonable probability of prejudice; it also held two Brady claims and the Batson/Swain claims unreviewable because they were first raised only in filings made after a limited Grazier remand on which the Court had retained jurisdiction. Along the way it cautioned trial courts against delegating verdict-slip explanations to court officers off the record.