In December 2022, Attorney Noel obtained PCRA relief in the form of a new trial on behalf of her client, who had been convicted of third-degree murder. Dissatisfied with that result, the Commonwealth exercised its right to appeal the PCRA court’s order to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Following robust briefing by Attorney Noel, the Superior Court sided with Attorney Noel’s client, and affirmed the PCRA court’s order awarding him a new trial.

Attorney Noel’s client was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault, and was sentenced to serve 15 to 30 years in prison. Attorney Noel was retained to litigate a petition under Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act, and alleged several claims involving ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. Attorney Noel argued that her client’s trial attorney was ineffective for failing to object to the omission of a “no-adverse-inference” instruction from the trial court’s closing instructions to the jury. Attorney Noel further argued that her client’s appellate attorney was ineffective for failing to raise the issue on direct appeal, which would have resulted in automatic reversal of her client’s convictions and sentences. The trial court agreed and granted Attorney Noel’s client relief in the form of a new trial.

Attorney Noel was retained to investigate whether the defendant had potentially meritorious claims under Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act, also known as the “PCRA.” After completing a diligent and thorough investigation of her client’s criminal history and the facts of the case, Attorney Noel realized that her client’s offense should have been graded as a misdemeanor of the first degree, not a felony of the first degree.

Following the submission of a robust Post-Conviction Relief Act Petition, of which Attorney Noel was the sole author, and an evidentiary hearing on the claims raised, the PCRA Court found that trial counsel had no reasonable strategic basis for failing to request an “imperfect” self-defense jury instruction, when requesting such an instruction had been the plan all along. As a result, the PCRA Court vacated Attorney Noel’s client’s murder conviction and granted him a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel.

Following a sentencing hearing where the trial court imposed a sentence of over 20 to 40 years, private counsel withdrew as counsel of record and requested the appointment of court appointed counsel to represent the client on appeal. The trial court granted counsel’s motion to withdraw and appointed the Fayette County Office of the Public Defender. An attorney from that office was assigned, but failed to take any action to protect the client’s constitutional right to appeal and, unfortunately, allowed the statutory timeframe within which to file a direct appeal lapse.

Attorney Noel’s client was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 7 to 14 years in state prison.  Attorney Noel’s client used force to defend himself against his brother, who, at the time of the incident, was on parole for the robbery and murder of a man he beat to death.