Opinion
Civil No. 1:13-CV-1410 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1622 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1637 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1655 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1656 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1670 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1671 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1681 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1682 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1684 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1690 Civil No. 1:13-CV-1707 Civil No. 1:14-CV-1375 Civil No.1:14-CV-1379 Civil No. 1:14-CV-1380 Civil No. 1:14-CV-1383 Civil No. 1:14-CV-1390 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1452 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1657 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1662 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1669 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1672 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1673 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1680 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1685 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1687 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1688 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1698 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1699 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1705 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1721 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1736 Civil No. 3:13-CV-1786 Civil No. 3:14-CV-1374 Civil No. 3:14-CV-1385 Civil No. 3:14-CV-1389 Civil No. 4:13-CV-939 Civil No. 4:13-CV-1472 Civil No. 4:13-CV-1537 Civil No. 4:13-CV-1665 Civil No. 4:14-CV-1386
01-26-2016
LARRY MARKLE, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents SCOTT ALLEN NOLL Petitioner v. SUPERINTENDENT OF THE STATE CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION AT DALLAS, et al., Respondents JOHN LEBO, JR., Petitioner v. JOHN W. KERESTES, et al., Respondents DONTAE DION CHAMBERS, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JUSTIN J. ROBERTSON, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents STEVEN PANNEBAKER, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents ROXANNE SEVERCOOL, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents COREY HOLLINGER, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents MICHAEL KUTENITS, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents HENRY WHITMAN, III Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents RONALDO SANCHEZ, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JERRELL M. STEWART, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents WARNER ERVIN BATTY, JR., Petitioner v. FRANK J. TENNIS, et al., Respondents JAMES BUTTON, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents WILFREDO CABALLERO, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents HENRY L. DENNISON, JR., Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents GERALD WRIGHT, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JOHNNY MILLER, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents SCOTT EUGENE GRIFFIN, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JOHN VINCENT WATERS, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents CLAYTON FAXON, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JACKIE THOMPSON, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents BRANDON THOMAS BROWN, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents ANTHONY CESSNA, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents YARIEL CORTES, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents SCOTT C. DAVIS, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents ZACHARY WITMAN, Petitioner v. JON F. FISHER, et al., Respondents DWAYNE MORNINGWAKE, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents KWILSON COLEMAN, Petitioner v. STEVEN GLUNT, et al., Respondents BERNARD WILLIAMS, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents JEFFREY E. LEFEVRE, Petitioner v. JEROME WALSH, et al., Respondents NORMAN RONALD GUNDRUM, JR., Petitioner v. PA State Attorney General, et al., Respondents DARON NESBIT, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents CHRISTOPHER BAKER, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents HOWARD JONES, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents FOSTER LEE TARVER, Petitioner v. JAMES HOWARD, et al., Respondents TODD HYUNG-RAE TARSELLI, Petitioner v. LOUIS FOLINO, et al., Respondents TYRONE JACKSON, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents RICHARD CALVIN KLINGER, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents DWAYNE SMITH-BEY, Petitioner v. DANIEL P. BURNS, et al., Respondents CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, Petitioner v. JOHN E. WETZEL, et al., Respondents
(Judge Rambo) () (Judge Jones) (Chief Judge Conner) (Judge Caldwell) (Judge Kane) (Magistrate Judge Schwab) (Judge Mannion) (Judge Mariani) (Judge Conaboy) (Judge Kosik) (Judge Caputo) (Judge Munley) (Judge Nealon) (Judge Brann) ORDER
In these proceedings, the petitioners are inmates in the custody of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, who are serving sentences of life imprisonment that were imposed upon each of the petitioners after the petitioners were convicted of murders, murders that were committed at a time when the petitioners were juveniles. Each petitioner has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, arguing that his or her sentence of life imprisonment is unconstitutional under the Eighth And Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, in light of the United States Supreme Court's holding in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), which struck down mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders. We are overseeing pre-trial management in each of these cases and all of these cases appear to involve a common legal issue relating to the retroactivity of the Supreme Court's decision in Miller to cases pending on collateral review.
Because this question concerning the retroactivity of the Miller decision was pending before the Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, we stayed consideration of these petitions pending a definitive ruling on this question of law, a question which we believed was common to all of these petitions, and a question whose resolution may be outcome determinative in many of these cases.
We now have this definitive ruling. On January 25, 2016, the United States Supreme Court held that Miller's prohibition on mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders announced a new substantive rule that, under the Constitution, is retroactive in cases on state collateral review. Montgomery v. Louisiana, No. 14 280, 2016 WL 280758 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2016). In light of this ruling, IT IS ORDERED as follows:
1. The stays previously entered in the above captioned cases are LIFTED.
2. On or before February 26, 2016, counsel in the above-captioned cases shall meet and confer, and report to this court in writing regarding whether, in light of Miller and its retroactive application by the Supreme Court in Montgomery v. Louisiana, No. 14 280, 2016 WL 280758 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2016), the petitioner is entitled to habeas corpus relief in the form of orders remanding these cases to the Court of Common Pleas for further proceedings in accordance with Miller and Montgomery.
So ordered this 26th day of January 2016.
/s/ Martin C . Carlson
Martin C. Carlson
United States Magistrate Judge