IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
MIDDLE DISTRICT
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : No. 870 MAL 2015
:
Respondent :
: Petition for Allowance of Appeal from
: the Unpublished Memorandum and
v. : Order of the Superior Court at No. 1757
: EDA 2014 exited October 21, 2015,
: affirming the Order of the Lehigh
BRYAN ROBERT FREEMAN, : County Court of Common Pleas at No.
: CP-39-CR-0001077-1995 exited May
Petitioner : 23, 2014
ORDER
PER CURIAM DECIDED: February 17, 2016
AND NOW, this 17th day of February, 2016, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal
is GRANTED on the issue of whether Petitioner’s sentence violates the prohibition
against mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders announced by the Supreme
Court of the United States in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012).
As a result of the recent holding by that Court that Miller must be applied retroactively
by the States, see Montgomery v. Louisiana, 2016 WL 280758 (U.S. Jan. 25, 2016), the
Superior Court’s order is VACATED, and the case is REMANDED for further
proceedings consistent with Montgomery.
To the extent necessary, leave is to be granted to amend the post-conviction
petition to assert the jurisdictional provision of the Post Conviction Relief Act extending
to the recognition of constitutional rights by the Supreme Court of the United States
which it deems to be retroactive. See 42 Pa.C.S. §9545(b)(1)(iii).
Justice Eakin did not participate in the decision of this matter