Commonwealth v. Wilson, Zachary (Concurring Opinion)

 Annotate this Case
Download PDF
[J-105-2001] IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA EASTERN DISTRICT COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : : Appellee : : : v. : : : ZACHARY WILSON, : : Appellant : : : : : No. 230 CAP Appeal from the 5/6/98 Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Trial Division, Criminal Section, at Nos. 2950-52, September Term, 1986, denying Appellant's Petition under the Post Conviction Relief Act SUBMITTED: July 25, 2001 CONCURRING OPINION MR. JUSTICE NIGRO DECIDED: November 19, 2004 I agree with the majority that the PCRA court s order denying Appellant postconviction relief should be affirmed. I write separately, however, to note my serious concern with the prosecutor s failure to disclose Edward Jackson s crimen falsi conviction to Appellant when, as the majority notes, a record reflecting that conviction was in the prosecutor s own file. Given this Court s clear pronouncement that the prosecutor s Brady obligation extends to exculpatory evidence contained in the files of police agencies, see Commonwealth v. Burke, 781 A.2d 1136, 1142 (Pa. 2001), there can be no doubt that Brady also requires the prosecutor to disclose such evidence in her own files. Of course, knowing what documents must be disclosed is necessarily predicated on knowing what is in one s file in the first instance, and it is therefore disconcerting that the prosecutor in this capital case was unfamiliar with the contents of her own file. That said, I agree with the majority that the Court is unable to decide whether the prosecutor s failure to disclose Jackson s conviction ultimately violated Brady here, as Appellant failed to include this issue in his PCRA petition and it is therefore not properly before the Court. 2

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.