A Philadelphia man who spat on a guard at a state prison in Schuylkill County will not have his conviction reversed despite of improper testimony against him, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has decided.
In a seven-page opinion filed Thursday in Pottsville, the panel ruled any possible prejudice against Hanif Chamber, 32, by a reference to his refusal to be interviewed was erased by both county Judge Charles M. Miller's instructions to the jury and the overwhelming evidence of guilt.
"We conclude that the statement ... was harmless error," Senior Judge William H. Platt wrote in the panel's opinion.
The ruling leaves intact Chamber's conviction for aggravated harassment by prisoner and disorderly conduct, as well as the sentence against him of 21 to 42 months in a state correctional institution.
However, Chamber would not have gone free even if the conviction had been reversed, since he is serving a life sentence for murder at SCI/Huntingdon.
A jury deliberated less than an hour on Feb. 7, 2013, before convicting Chamber of aggravated harassment by a prisoner. Miller, who presided over Chamber's one-day trial, found him guilty of disorderly conduct.
State police at Frackville charged Chamber with spitting on Corrections Officer 2 Brian Gower at 2:20 p.m. May 18, 2012, at the officers' desk in the Fox Alpha Unit at SCI/Mahanoy while Chamber was an inmate at that prison.
Platt wrote that even though a state police officer testified Chamber had refused to speak with him, which was legally improper because the defendant had a constitutional right to remain silent, Miller immediately told the jury to disregard that statement. Furthermore, Miller had mentioned that right to remain silent in both his opening and closing charges to the jury, according to Platt.
"Therefore, the court cure any prejudice allegedly suffered by (Chamber) due to the improper statement," Platt wrote.
Furthermore, the amount of evidence against Chamber was immense, Platt wrote.
"The Commonwealth introduced overwhelming properly-admitted and uncontested evidence to support (Chamber's) conviction," including a video, he wrote. "Therefore, the court did not abuse its discretion when it denied (Chamber's) motion for a mistrial."
Judges Sallie Updyke Mundy and Jack A. Panella, the other panel members, joined Platt's opinion.