Court Opinion

ID: 9727102
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:19:57.151021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:33.571953
License: Public Domain

SEVEN, J.,
dissenting:
¶ 1 I respectfully dissent from the Majority decision to reverse a lower court order dismissing a PCRA petition as untimely. Initially, at the very least, I would remand the present case in order to determine how Appellant was entitled to two separate appointed counsel and yet retained his own PRIVATE counsel, all for the purpose of filing an eventual PCRA petition. For example, the lower court should make a finding as to whether or not Appellant misrepresented his economic status when he obtained court-appointed attorneys and yet apparently had the funds to retain his own private attorney.
¶ 2 Moreover, Appellant by his own actions in not awaiting the decision of this Court on direct appeal, and in retaining private counsel who did not file a PCRA petition, may have been the cause of his own untimeliness.
¶ 3 There is simply no reason to give Appellant the benefit of doubt by reversing the trial court without first determining whether or not Appellant’s own actions caused the eventual untimeliness. I would therefore remand.