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NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
v.
FRANCIS E. VANDERPOOL
Appellant No. 1152 MDA 2016
Appeal from the PCRA Order July 1, 2016
In the Court of Common Pleas of Bradford County
Criminal Division at No(s): CP-08-CR-0000003-1965
CP-08-MD-0000209-2012
BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., PANELLA, J., and PLATT, J.
MEMORANDUM BY PANELLA, J. FILED FEBRUARY 24, 2017
Appellant, Francis E. Vanderpool, appeals pro se from the order
entered in the Bradford County Court of Common Pleas on July 1, 2016,1
dismissing his serial Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”) petition as untimely.
We affirm.
____________________________________________
Retired Senior Judge assigned to Superior Court.
1
Appellant purports to appeal from the PCRA court’s order dated June 27,
2016. See Notice of Appeal, filed 7/14/16. “In a criminal case, the date of
entry of an order is the date the clerk of courts enters the order on the
docket, furnishes a copy of the order to the parties, and records the time
and manner of notice on the docket.” Commonwealth v. Jerman, 762
A.2d 366, 368 (Pa. Super. 2000) (citations omitted). That date, in this case,
is July 1, 2016.
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The relevant facts and procedural history of this case may be
summarized as follows. On January 21, 1966, Appellant entered a guilty plea
to murder generally, for the shooting death of his pregnant wife. Appellant
was 18 years old at the time of the murder. The trial court accepted the plea
and held a degree of guilt hearing, at which time the court deemed Appellant
guilty of first-degree murder. The court sentenced him to the statutorily
mandated term of life incarceration without parole.
In the years following Appellant’s conviction, he filed several
unsuccessful petitions for collateral relief. Appellant filed the instant petition
on March 28, 2016. The PCRA court issued Rule 907 notice, and later
dismissed Appellant’s petition. Appellant filed a timely notice of appeal.
The timeliness of a post-conviction petition is jurisdictional. See
Commonwealth v. Hernandez, 79 A.3d 649, 651 (Pa. Super. 2013).
Generally, a petition for relief under the PCRA, including a second or
subsequent petition, must be filed within one year of the date the judgment
is final unless the petition alleges, and the petitioner proves, an exception to
the time for filing the petition is met. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b)(1)(i), (ii),
and (iii). A PCRA petition invoking one of these statutory exceptions must
“be filed within 60 days of the date the claims could have been presented.”
See Hernandez, 79 A.3d at 652 (citations omitted). See also 42 Pa.C.S.A.
§ 9545(b)(2).
“[A] contention that a newly-recognized constitutional right should be
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extended to others does not render [a] petition [seeking such an expansion
of the right] timely pursuant to section 9545(b)(1)(iii).” Commonwealth v.
Furgess, 149 A.3d 90, 94 (Pa. Super. 2016) (citation omitted; brackets
added and in original; emphasis in original).
Appellant did not file a direct appeal; therefore, his judgment of
sentence became final in 1966. Despite the half-century lapse between his
judgment of sentence and his current petition, Appellant attempts to avoid
the PCRA’s time bar by invoking the new constitutional rule exception.
Appellant cites Miller v. Alabama, 132 S.Ct. 2455 (2012), and
Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S.Ct. 718 (2016).
In Miller, the Court held that “mandatory life-without-parole
sentences for juveniles violate the Eighth Amendment.” Id., at 2464. In
Montgomery, the Court found that Miller recognized “a new substantive
rule of constitutional law” and should apply retroactively. 136 S.Ct. at 729.
Appellant was 18 when he murdered his pregnant wife. He cites Miller
and Montgomery for the novel premise that the Supreme Court’s rulings
include those who were 18 at the time they committed their crimes. Miller,
however, applies to “juveniles,” id., at 2464, that is, only to those
defendants who were “under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes,” id.,
at 2460. Appellant’s reliance on Miller and Montgomery for retroactive
relief from a crime he committed when he was legally an adult is simply
inapposite.
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We further note that this Court has flatly rejected Appellant’s brain
development argument. See, e.g., Furgess, 149 A.3d at 94.
Appellant’s petition is patently untimely and does not fall into any of
the exceptions enumerated in 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9545(b); consequently, the
PCRA court lacked jurisdiction to consider it. Thus, the PCRA court properly
dismissed Appellant’s petition as untimely.
Order affirmed.
Judgment Entered.
Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.
Prothonotary
Date: 2/24/2017
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