Commonwealth v. Dancer

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROBERTS, Justice.

This appeal from a denial of relief under the Post Conviction Hearing Act 1 requires us to determine whether a defendant represented on direct appeal by an attorney other than his trial counsel waives his claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel by failing to raise that issue on direct appeal. In the circumstances of this case, we hold that failure to raise the issue on direct appeal constitutes a waiver.

In 1971, appellant Mack Ceasar Dancer was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree. Following denial of post-trial motions, Dancer was…