Pennsylvania v. Porter (majority)
Annotate this CaseAppellant Ernest Porter appealed a common pleas court order that denied his serial petition under the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA). Appellant was sentenced to death for the murder of Raymond Fiss in 1985. After his appeal was was briefed on the timeliness merits and submitted, the parties, upon direction of the Supreme Court, filed supplemental briefs addressing the jurisdictional issue of whether the PCRA court's order was final and appealable. Upon review, the Supreme Court determined that the common pleas court's order was appealable and that the court's time-bar determination was correct. With this case, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to address: (1) the circumstances creating uncertainty respecting appealability, in an effort to ensure that those circumstances do not arise again; and (2) the circumstances creating the unacceptable delay in this case, so that PCRA courts throughout Pennsylvania will take measures to avoid such delays. Though the Court affirmed the PCRA court's decision with regard to the time-bar determination, the case was remanded to direct the PCRA court to promptly dispose of Appellant's long-pending prior PCRA petition which raised an issue under "Atkins v. Virginia," 536 U.S. 304 (2002).
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