of discretion and, finally, that the death penalty is predominately imposed upon the poor. To prevail on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, Crews must demonstrate that: 1) the underlying claim is of arguable merit; 2) counsel’s performance was unreasonable; and 3) counsel’s ineffectiveness resulted in prejudice. Commonwealth v. Pierce, 515 Pa. 153, 158-59, 527 A.2d 973, 975 (1987). As the United States Supreme Court held in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty per se. Id. at 188, 96 S.Ct. at 2932; see also Commonwealth v. Zettlemoyer, 500 Pa. 16, 77, 454 A.2d 937, 969 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 970, 103 S.Ct. 2444, 77 L.Ed.2d 1327 (1983) (<HOLDING>). Rather, the Eighth Amendment proscribes the
holding that the fact that defendant spent years on death row awaiting execution does not render the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment holding that punishments are cruel when they involve torture or a lingering death holding the death penalty disproportionately cruel and unusual when imposed for the crime of rape holding that the death penalty does not violate the prohibition against cruel punishments set forth in article 1 section 13 of the pennsylvania constitution holding that a criminal defendants right to an impartial jury is guaranteed by article 1 section 9 of the pennsylvania constitution