SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA REVERSES BUTLER COUNTY JUDGE’S ORDER DISMISSING PCRA PETITION
In 2014, a Butler County jury convicted the defendant of rape and numerous related offenses. The defendant was sentenced to nearly 32 to 74 years in prison. The defendant’s trial attorney filed an untimely notice of appeal, which resulted in the quashal of the defendant’s direct appeal. More concerningly, the untimely filing of the defendant’s direct appeal placed the defendant’s right to pursue post-conviction relief in serious jeopardy.
In Pennsylvania, a PCRA Petition must be filed within one year of the date the judgment of sentence becomes final. A judgment of sentence usually becomes final at the conclusion of direct appeal. However, in situations where a direct appeal is untimely, the judgment of sentence becomes final when the time to file a direct appeal expires. In this case, the defendant’s prior attorney’s failure to file a timely appeal resulted in a situation in which the judgment of sentence became final long before the conclusion of the direct appeal. This was extremely problematic for the defendant because if a PCRA Petition is not filed on time, Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction to entertain its merits.
Years after the defendant’s direct appeal was quashed, the defendant retained Attorney Noel. Attorney Noel presented a creative and novel theory for why the PCRA Court possessed jurisdiction over her client’s case, despite the fact that his PCRA Petition appeared to be patently untimely. The PCRA Court was not persuaded and dismissed the defendant’s Petition.
Attorney Noel took an appeal on her client’s behalf. Shortly after the appeal was filed, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a decision that strongly supported the jurisdictional theory Attorney Noel presented to the PCRA Court. In a published Opinion issued months later, the Superior Court agreed that Attorney Noel’s theory was the correct one, finding that the PCRA Court erred in dismissing her client’s Petition for lack of jurisdiction. The Superior Court therefore reversed the Butler County Court’s Order dismissing her client’s PCRA Petition and remanded for further proceedings.
