Opinion
J-S04036-16 No. 485 WDA 2015
03-23-2016
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellee v. CLARENCE COLEMAN, Appellant
NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered January 7, 2015, in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Criminal Division, at No(s): CC 198707562 BEFORE: BOWES, OLSON, and STRASSBURGER, JJ. MEMORANDUM BY STRASSBURGER, J.:
Retired Senior Judge assigned to the Superior Court.
Clarence Coleman (Appellant) appeals pro se from the order entered January 7, 2015, dismissing his petition filed pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA). We affirm.
Generally, a PCRA petition must be filed within one year from the date a judgment becomes final. There are three exceptions to this time requirement: (1) interference by government officials in the presentation of the claim; (2) newly discovered facts; and (3) an after-recognized constitutional right. When a petitioner alleges and proves that one of these exceptions is met, the petition will be considered timely. A PCRA petition invoking one of these exceptions must be filed within 60 days of the date the
claims could have been presented. The timeliness requirements of the PCRA are jurisdictional in nature and, accordingly, a PCRA court cannot hear untimely petitions.Commonwealth v. Brandon , 51 A.3d 231, 233-34 (Pa. Super. 2012) (footnote added; citations and quotation marks omitted).
"PCRA petitioners whose judgment of sentence became final prior to the effective date of the amendments to the PCRA ha[d] until January 17, 1997 to file a timely [petition]." Commonwealth v. Baldwin , 789 A.2d 728, 730 (Pa. Super. 2001). As discussed infra, Appellant's judgment of sentence became final on April 1, 1994, and the amendments became effective on January 16, 1996; thus, Appellant had the benefit of this additional time to file timely his first PCRA petition.
Instantly, Appellant was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 10, 1988. On March 2, 1994, this Court affirmed Appellant's judgment of sentence. Commonwealth v. Coleman , 643 A.2d 702 (Pa. Super. 1994) (unpublished memorandum). Appellant did not file a petition for allowance of appeal to our Supreme Court; thus, his judgment of sentence became final on or about April 1, 1994. Accordingly, Appellant had until January 17, 1997 to file timely a PCRA petition.
Appellant did file timely his first PCRA petition, and was denied relief. Subsequently, Appellant untimely filed at least four petitions prior to filing the instant one.
The instant petition, filed on July 17, 2014, is patently untimely. The PCRA court had no jurisdiction to entertain Appellant's petition unless he pled and offered proof of one or more of the three statutory exceptions to the time bar. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9545(b)(1). Appellant failed to do so. Accordingly, the PCRA court properly dismissed his petition.
Order affirmed. Judgment Entered. /s/_________
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary Date: 3/23/2016
We observe that Appellant was 17 years old at the time he committed this murder. He was sentenced subsequently to life in prison without parole. On January 27, 2016, while this appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court decided Montgomery v. Louisiana , 2016 WL 280758 (U.S. 2016), in which it held that its decision in "Miller v. Alabama , [] 132 S.Ct. 2455 [] (2012), [wherein] the Court held that a juvenile convicted of a homicide offense could not be sentenced to life in prison without parole absent consideration of the juvenile's special circumstances in light of the principles and purposes of juvenile sentencing," is "retroactive to juvenile offenders whose convictions and sentences were final when Miller was decided." Id.
Appellant did not plead Miller as a timeliness exception in the instant PCRA petition. However, Appellant has 60 days from the conclusion of this appeal to file a PCRA petition seeking relief under Miller and Montgomery. Cf. Commonwealth v. Secreti , 2016 WL 513341, at *6 (Pa. Super. 2016) (holding that "the Miller rule of law 'has been held' to be retroactive for purposes of collateral review as of the date of the Miller decision on June 25, 2012. The date of the Montgomery decision (January 25, 2016, as revised on January 27, 2016) will control for purposes of the 60-day rule in Section 9545(b)(2).").