Commonwealth v. Cristina, J-S13002-15

• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court
• Writing for the Court: MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellant v. JEFFREY CRISTINA, Appellee
• Docket Number: J-S13002-15,No. 601 WDA 2013
• Decision Date: 03 May 2016

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellant
v.
JEFFREY CRISTINA, Appellee

J-S13002-15
No. 601 WDA 2013

SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

MAY 3, 2016

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered March 20, 2013
In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-02-CR-0001478-1976 CP-02-CR-0002462-1976 CP-02-CR-0002464-1976

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., MUNDY, J., and STABILE, J.

MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.:

This case is before us on remand from our Supreme Court. After careful review, we affirm the PCRA Court's order granting relief and remand for resentencing.

We previously summarized the relevant factual and procedural history of this case as follows:

In 1976, Cristina was convicted by a jury of second degree murder for the killing of Frank Slazinski during a home invasion. Cristina, a juvenile when the homicide occurred, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP) on March 29, 1977. On October 5, 1978, our Supreme Court affirmed his judgment of sentence. Commonwealth v. Cristina, 391 A.2d 1307 (Pa. 1978). The Supreme Court of the United States subsequently denied his Petition for Writ of Certiorari on February 21, 1979. Cristina v. Pennsylvania, 440 U.S. 925 (1979) (table).

Page 2

On March 15, 1984, Cristina filed a counseled petition under the Post Conviction Hearing Act (PCHA), the statutory predecessor of the PCRA. Cristina's PCHA petition was denied by order of the PCHA court on April 3, 1985. This Court affirmed that order on May 12, 1986, and our Supreme Court denied Cristina's subsequent petition for allowance of appeal on January 7, 1987. Commonwealth v. Cristina, 512 A.2d 1288 (Pa. Super. 1986) (unpublished memorandum), appeal denied, 521 A.2d 931 (Pa. 1987) (table).

Cristina filed his second post-conviction petition for collateral relief on June 16, 2010. Counsel was appointed and filed an amended PCRA petition on September 14, 2011. Following a hearing, Cristina's amended petition was denied by order of the PCRA court dated October 28, 2011. Cristina did not appeal from that order.

Cristina filed his third post-conviction petition for collateral relief, the subject of the instant appeal, on July 27, 2012, 32 days after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Miller v. Alabama, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 2469 (2012) (holding that "the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders"). On August 14, 2012, current PCRA counsel was appointed. He filed an amended PCRA petition (hereinafter "the Petition") on Cristina's behalf on December 3, 2012, alleging that, under the rubric of Miller, Cristina's LWOP sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the 8^th Amendment. By order dated March 20, 2013, the PCRA court granted the Petition and set a date for resentencing Cristina. The Commonwealth then timely filed the instant appeal, as well as a timely Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement. Subsequently, the PCRA court issued its Rule 1925(a) opinion on September 9, 2014. Therein, the PCRA court changed course, recommending that this Court reverse its March 20, 2013 order. PCRA Court Opinion (PCO), 9/9/14, at 2.

Commonwealth v. Cristina, 114 A.3d 419, 420 (Pa. Super. 2015), appeal granted, order vacated, No. 183 WAL 2015, 2016 WL 593950 (Pa. filed Feb. 11, 2016) (footnote omitted) (hereinafter, "Cristina").

Page 3

In Cristina, we reversed the PCRA's court's order in light of Commonwealth v. Cunningham, 622 Pa. 543, 81 A.3d 1 (2013), holding that:

[I]n the wake of Cu

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