[J-16-2019]
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
EASTERN DISTRICT
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : No. 748 CAP
:
Appellee : Appeal from the Order entered on
: November 16, 2007 in the Court of
: Common Pleas, Philadelphia
v. : County, Criminal Division, denying
: PCRA relief at No. CP-51-CR-
: 0602521-1989. (Nunc Pro Tunc
ANTHONY REID, : appeal rights reinstated on June 22,
: 2017)
Appellant :
: SUBMITTED: February 4, 2019
CONCURRING STATEMENT
JUSTICE DONOHUE DECIDED: October 15, 2020
I join the order as I am constrained to do as a result of this Court’s precedential
opinion in Commonwealth v. Reid, 235 A.3d 1124 (Pa. 2020). For the reasons stated in
my dissenting opinion in Reid, I continue to hold the view that Williams v. Pennsylvania,
___ U.S. ___, 136 S.Ct. 1899 (2016), mandates that this defendant receive a de novo
appeal to this Court because former Justice Castille, while the District Attorney of
Philadelphia, authorized the pursuit of the death penalty in his case and later participated
in the appeal of the imposition of that sentence. Williams should have been retroactively
applied to this defendant and the two other defendants similarly situated. I continue to
believe that the preservation of the integrity of this Court demanded no less.