Pennsylvania v. Thomas (majority)
Annotate this Case
Appellant Leroy Thomas (a/k/a John Wayne) appealed an order that denied him post-conviction relief (PCRA). Appellant was convicted by jury of the first degree murder of Kenneth Rankine. At the penalty phase, the jury found one aggravating circumstance: Appellant had been previously convicted of murder. The jury found no mitigating circumstances and sentenced Appellant to death. Appellant filed a direct appeal to the Supreme Court, claiming ineffective assistance of trial counsel and insufficient evidence to support his conviction. The Supreme Court affirmed, finding Appellant failed to establish he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and that the Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt he conspired with two others to kill the victim. Appellant then filed a timely pro se PCRA petition, was appointed new counsel, and filed an amended petition. Appellant appealed the denial of his PCRA petition ,raising eight issues. The Supreme Court took each of these issues in turn, and found that Appellant failed to establish the PCRA court abused its discretion in denying Appellant relief.
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.