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NON - PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37 COMMONWEALTH OF PENN SYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Appellee

v. MUHAMMUD BINABDULRAHI HILL Appellant No. 916 MDA 2018 Appeal from the PCRA Order Entered May 2 , 2018 In the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County Criminal Division at No: CP

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BEFORE: SHOGAN, STABILE, and McLAUGHLIN, JJ. MEMORANDUM BY STABILE, J.: FILED JANUARY 25, 2019 Appellant, Muhammud Binabdulrahi Hill , appeals pro se from the May 2, 2018 order denying his petition pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 9541

- 46. We affirm. On October 22, 2014, a jury found Appellant guilty of aggravated assault, simple assault, and harassment. 1 On December 2, 2014, the sentencing court imposed eight and one

- half to seventeen years of incarceration. This Court affirmed the judgmen t of sentence on March 11, 2015, and our Supreme Court denied allowance of appeal on September 27, 2016. Appellant filed a timely first pro se PCRA petition on September 29, 2017. On April 11, appointed counsel filed a no merit letter and petition to

_________________ __________ ______ ____ _______ 1 18 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 2701, 2702, and 2709.J

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wit hdraw pursuant to Commonwealth v. Turner , 544 A.2d 927 (Pa. 1988) and Commonwealth v. Finley , 550 A.2d 213 (Pa. Super. 1988) ( en banc ). The PCRA court entered an order on May 2, 2018 dismissing the petition without a hearing and without ever entering noti ce of its intent to do so in accord with Pa.R.Crim.P. 907. The only issue Appellant raises in this timely
pro se appeal is whether the PCRA court erred by failing to file a Rule 907
notice. Because Appellant challenges the PCRA court’s legal conclusion, our standard of review is de novo

. Commonwealth v. Reyes - Rodriguez , 111 A.3d 775 (Pa. Super. 2015) ( en banc ), appeal denied , 123 A.3d 331 (Pa. 2015). Rule 907 provides in pertinent part as follows: Except as provided in Rule 909 for death penalty case s, (1) the judge shall promptly review the petition, any answer by the attorney for the Commonwealth, and other matters of r ecord relating to the defendant’ s claim(s). If the judge is satisfied from this review that there are no genuine issues concerning any material fact and that the defendant is not entitled to post

conviction collateral relief, and no purpose would be served by any further proceedings, the judge shall give notice to the parties of the intention to dismiss the petition and shall state in the notice the reasons for the dismissal. The defendant may respond to the proposed dismissal within 20 days of the date of the notice. The judge thereafter shall order the petition dismissed, grant leave to file an amended petition, or direct that the proceedings continue. Pa.R.Crim.P. 907 (1). The only case Appellant cites in support of his argument is Commonwealth v. Hopfer , 965 A.2d 270 (Pa. Super. 2009). There, as here, the petitioner’s counsel filed a no merit letter and the trial court dismissed theJ

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petition without filing a Rule 907 notice. There, as here, the petitioner argued that the PCRA court committed an error of law in dismissing his petition
wi thout complying with Rule 907. We agreed. In its analysis, the Hopfer Court considered our decision in Commonwealth v. Bond , 630 A.2d 1281 (Pa. Super. 1993), in which this Court held that the PCRA court’s dismissal without filing notice was acceptable where the dismissal occurred more than 20 days after the petitioner receiv ed counsel’s no m erit letter. The Bond Court declined to remand for entry of notice (under then extant Rule 1507, the predecessor to Rule 907) because counsel and the court “scrupulously” followed Turner

/ Finley procedure

. Id. at 1283. The Bond Court wrote: In order to withdraw successfully, however, counsel must inform the court in a ‘ no - merit letter ’ the extent of her review, the exact claims raised by the petitioner, and explain why they are meritless. The post

- conviction court must conduct its own review of the rec ord and agree that the petition is meritless. Once this procedure is completed, the petitioner has received all the protection incorporated into the right to counsel in collateral proceedings ’ to which he is entitled, and ‘ [n]o further inquiry, notificati on to the petitioner or a finding that the claims of the petitioner [are] ‘wholly frivolous ’ is necessary. Id. at 1283 (quoting Turner and Finley ). In addition to the no merit letter and petition to withdraw, the petitioner’s counsel sent multiple letters explaining the lack of validity of the petitioner’s claims. Id. The petitioner never responded to the Turner / Finley filing. The Bond Court th erefore concluded that the Rule 1507 (now Rule 907) notice was unnecessary. Id. The Hopfer Court distinguished Bond , noting that the PCRA court in Bond waited more than twenty days after counsel’s Turner / Finley filing toJ

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dismiss the petition. In Hopfer , however, the PCRA court dismissed the petition immediately upon receiving counsel’s Turner / Finley filing. Hopfer , 965 A.2d at 275. The petit ioner therefore received the no

- merit letter no more than two days before the PCRA court’s dismissal order. Id. The Hopfer Court held that “any notice of dismissal, whether in the form of a Rule 907 notice by the court or a Turner / Finley no - merit letter, must occur at least twenty days prior to an official dismissal order.” Id. Taken together, Bond and Hopfer te ach that counsel’s Turner / Finley filing can take the place of a Rule 907 notice so long as (1) counsel and the court scrupulously comply with
Turner / Finley procedure, and (2) the PCRA court waits at least twenty days after the date of the Turner / Finley fil ing to enter a dismissal order. 2 Instantly, the record reflects that counsel filed the Turner / Finley petition to withdraw and no merit letter on April 11, 2018. The PCRA court

_________________ __________ ______ ____ _______ 2 As a three

- judge panel of this Court, we are not free to disregard the opinions in Bond and Hopfer . We observe however, that Rule 907 provides that a PCRA court “ shall give notice to the parties of the intention to dismiss the petition and shall state in the notice the reasons for the dismissal. ” Pa.R.Crim. P. 907 (1). Our Supreme Court has noted that “the word ‘shall’ as used in a statute is generally regarded as manda tory[.]” Commonwealth v. Baker , 690 A.2d 164, 167 (Pa. 1997). The Bond and Hopfer Court s, in essence, apply a judicially

- created exception to the mandatory language of Rule 907 which permits the PCRA court to rely on a Turner / Finley filing in lieu of Rul e 907 notice. This in turn, forces a pro se appellant to litigate whether compliance with Turner / Finley was sufficiently scrupulous, and/or whether Bond is viable under statutory construction analysis. This seems to us a significant burden to place on a pro petitioner who received no notice from the PCRA court that his petition was about to be dismissed without a hearing. Absent further direction from an en banc panel of this Court or our Supreme Court , however, we are constrained to adhere to existing p recedent.J

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entered its dismissal order twenty

- one days later, on May 2, 2018. The PCRA court therefore complied with Hopfer . Appellant never responded to counsel’s
Turner / Finley filing, and he does not assert any deficiency in compliance with
Turner / Finley on the p art of counsel or the court. We therefore affirm the order dismissing Appellant’s petition. Order affirmed.

Judgment Entered.

Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq. Prothonotary

Date: 01/25/2019