Com. v. Hutchins
Decision Date | 13 September 2000 |
Citation | 760 A.2d 50 |
Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Scott HUTCHINS, Appellant. |
Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Beth A. Muhlhauser, Abington, for appellant.
Michael Marion, Assistant District Attorney, Norristown, for appellee.
BEFORE: EAKIN, J., STEVENS, J., and CERCONE, President Judge Emeritus.
CERCONE, President Judge Emeritus:
¶ 1 This is an appeal from an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County denying Appellant relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act, (PCRA), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541-9546. After review, we affirm.
¶ 2 The underlying relevant facts and procedural history of Appellant's case have been previously set forth by our Court in its published opinion as follows:
Commonwealth v. Hutchins, 453 Pa.Super. 209, 683 A.2d 674, 675 (1996). In his direct appeal to our Court Appellant raised two issues. The first issue was a challenge to the Trial Court's refusal to allow Appellant to withdraw his guilty plea prior to sentencing. Id. at 675. The second issue was a challenge to the Trial Court's departure from the sentencing guidelines and to the imposition of the maximum sentence. Id. at 676-677. Our Court rejected both claims and affirmed Appellant's Judgment of Sentence on September 25, 1996.
¶ 3 Appellant did not afterwards petition our Supreme Court for allowance of appeal within the 30 day period permitted for the filing of such petitions under Pa.R.A.P. 1113(a). Instead Appellant filed a pro se Petition for Allowance of Appeal nunc pro tunc with the Supreme Court on January 16, 1997. This petition was denied by the Supreme Court on March 25, 1997. Appellant next filed a counseled PCRA Petition, his first, on March 20, 1998.1 Thereafter the Trial Court conducted a hearing on August 6, 1999. At this hearing Appellant, through counsel, waived consideration of any issues raised in his PCRA Petition which related to the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Appellant asked instead that the Trial Court only consider the issues in his PCRA Petition concerning the Trial Court's failure to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea prior to sentencing and the Trial Court's alleged failure to properly apply the sentencing factors of 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9721 in imposing its sentence which Appellant contended resulted in an illegal sentence. N.T. P.C.R.A. Hearing, 8/6/99, at 2-3; P.C.R.A. Petition, filed 3/20/98, at 26.2 The Trial Court ultimately dismissed Appellant's petition by order issued August 6, 1999. The Trial Court ruled that the two remaining issues which Appellant wished the Court to consider had already been addressed in Appellant's direct appeal. Trial Court Opinion dated 9/23/99 at 1-2. A timely appeal from this order to our Court followed.
¶ 4 Appellant raises the following issues in this appeal for our Court's consideration:
¶ 5 Before we can address the merits of these issues, though, we must consider the question of whether Appellant's PCRA Petition was timely filed, for it is now a well-settled principle of law that if a PCRA Petition is untimely, a trial court has no jurisdiction to entertain the petition. Commonwealth v. Crider, 735 A.2d 730, 733 (Pa.Super.1999); Commonwealth v. Dehart, 730 A.2d 991, 994 (Pa.Super.1999); Commonwealth v. Alcorn, 703 A.2d 1054, 1057 (Pa.Super.1997), appeal denied, 555 Pa. 711, 724 A.2d 348 (1998). Although neither party nor the Trial Court has addressed this matter, it is well-settled that we may raise it sua sponte since a question of timeliness implicates the jurisdiction of our Court. Commonwealth v. Priovolos, 746 A.2d 621, 625 (Pa.Super.2000), quoting Commonwealth v. Yarris, 557 Pa. 12, 24, 731 A.2d 581, 587 (1999)
.
¶ 6 As discussed above, Appellant's present PCRA petition was filed on March 24, 1998, therefore, it is governed by the most recent amendments to the PCRA, which were enacted on November 17, 1995 and which became effective 60 days thereafter on January 16, 1996.3 Included in the amendments was a change in the provision governing the time in which a PCRA petition had to be filed which is codified at 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b). Section 9545(b) now states:
(2) Any petition invoking an exception provided in paragraph (1) shall be filed within 60 days from the date the claim could have been presented.
appeal denied, ___ Pa. ___, 757 A.2d 930 (2/15/2000) ( ).
¶ 8 We recognize that Appellant later filed an untimely petition for allowance of appeal with our Supreme Court, which was denied. This later filing and subsequent denial, however, does not operate to circumvent the clear and unambiguous language contained in Section 9545(b)(3) by altering the date on which Appellant's conviction became final. The fact remains that Appellant did not timely seek review of our Court's decision with our Supreme Court within the 30 day time period allowed for seeking such review, thus his conviction must be deemed final as of the expiration of that time period. Were we to hold otherwise, then we would be disregarding the plain meaning of Section 9545(b)(3) and acting in contravention to the express intent of the legislature.
¶ 9 As stated, supra, Appellant had one year from the date his conviction became final to file his PCRA Petition. Since his conviction...
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... ... Commonwealth's brief at 4 ... ¶ 9 Preliminarily, as did the lower court, we consider whether the PCRA petition was timely filed. See Commonwealth v. Hutchins, 760 A.2d 50, 53 (Pa.Super.2000) (holding that an appellate court may consider the issue of jurisdiction in a PCRA appeal sua sponte ). It is imperative to note that the timeliness requirements of the PCRA are jurisdictional in nature. Commonwealth v. Pursell, 561 Pa. 214, 219, 749 A.2d 911, ... ...