Com. v. Boddy-Johnson, Z., Com. v. Boddy-Johnson, Z. No. 3029 EDA 2015

In Feb. 2008 Officer Craig Kelley was shot while inside a security booth at 301 Queen Lane; he survived serious wounds. Ballistics, DNA, surveillance video, a bank card, and an SKS rifle found near the scene linked Zahir Boddy-Johnson to the shooting.
At police headquarters Boddy-Johnson received Miranda warnings, signed a waiver, and gave a detailed statement admitting he shot Kelley and saying he intended to rob the officer to raise money for restitution in an unrelated stolen-car matter.
At trial the defense sought suppression/redaction of the portion of the statement referencing the stolen-car restitution; the court denied redaction. The jury convicted Boddy-Johnson of attempted murder, aggravated assault, weapons offenses, and related charges.
On direct appeal the convictions and sentence were affirmed; the Supreme Court denied allowance of appeal.
Boddy-Johnson filed a timely PCRA petition alleging trial counsel was ineffective for not requesting a limiting jury instruction about the “other crimes”/prior bad act evidence in his statement. The PCRA court denied relief without an evidentiary hearing; the Superior Court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for not requesting a limiting instruction about a prior bad-act reference in the defendant’s statement	Boddy-Johnson: counsel had no reasonable basis to decline the instruction and its omission prejudiced him	Commonwealth/Trial court: counsel reasonably declined the instruction (to avoid highlighting minimally significant evidence) and defendant suffered no prejudice	Counsel was not ineffective; PCRA denial affirmed

Commonwealth v. Fahy, 959 A.2d 312 (Pa. 2008) (standard of review for PCRA court findings)
Commonwealth v. Koehler, 36 A.3d 121 (Pa. 2012) (prejudice and Strickland framework explained)
Commonwealth v. Spotz, 870 A.2d 822 (Pa. 2005) (curative instructions can highlight issues; courts should be mindful)
Commonwealth v. Washington, 927 A.2d 586 (Pa. 2007) (curative instruction principles)
Commonwealth v. Perry, 959 A.2d 932 (Pa. Super. 2008) (deference to PCRA court findings)
Commonwealth v. Kimball, 724 A.2d 326 (Pa. 1999) (PCRA ineffective-assistance standard aligns with Strickland)
Commonwealth v. Buehl, 658 A.2d 771 (Pa. 1995) (older authority on burden for PCRA ineffectiveness claims)
Commonwealth ex rel. Dadario v. Goldberg, 773 A.2d 126 (Pa. 2001) (discussion retreating from Buehl and reaffirming Strickland standard)