IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
WESTERN DISTRICT
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, : No. 29 WAL 2015
:
Respondent :
: Petition for Allowance of Appeal from
: the Unpublished Memorandum and
v. : Order of the Superior Court at No.
: 31 WDA 2014 exited October 22, 2014,
: affirming the Order of the Allegheny
JAMES MILLER, : County Court of Common Pleas at
: No. CP-02-CR-0001854-1981 exited
Petitioner : December 4, 2013
ORDER
PER CURIAM
AND NOW, this 24th day of February, 2016, the Petition for Permission to File an
Amended Petition for Allowance of Appeal is DENIED. The Petition for Allowance of
Appeal is GRANTED on a limited basis, solely pertaining to 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. Allocatur is DENIED in all other respects.
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).
Mr. Justice Eakin did not participate in the consideration or decision of this
matter.
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