The PCRA is a statute that provides some criminal defendants, who have been convicted of a crime and who are still serving a sentence of probation or incarceration, with the ability to challenge their convictions even after an unsuccessful direct appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
PCRA’s are often filed to challenge ineffective assistance of counsel at trial or when an attorney is assisting a client’s decision to plead guilty. Other reasons to file a PCRA are retroactive changes in constitutional law and the discovery of new evidence that would change the outcome at trial or change a decision to enter a plea. The Post-Conviction Relief Act is complicated and there are strict deadlines for filing a PCRA. If you are considering filing a PCRA, it is very important to speak with a knowledgeable attorney.
The Post-Conviction Relief Act underwent changes in 2018. A bill was signed into law that changed the Post-Conviction Relief Act in three important ways:
First, the law extends the deadline for filing a Petition based on newly discovered evidence. Previously, petitioners only had sixty days to file a petition from the day they discovered any new evidence. The change in time-limit ensures that defendants who locate result-changing evidence after their trial, will have a reasonable time-frame to file their petition based on newly discovered evidence.
Second, these changes provide that defendants that file petitions based on new DNA testing do not have to be on probation or in prison at the time that the petition is filed and decided. Previously, the PCRA required that a petitioner be serving a sentence of probation or incarceration when filing the petition and when the petition was ruled on by the court.
Third, the changes in the law allow for DNA testing in some cases even where the defendant pleaded guilty at the time of the original criminal trial. Prior to these changes, a defendant who pleaded guilty could not seek DNA testing even when DNA testing would exonerate them. The new changes in the law eliminate this unfair bar in order to overturn wrongful convictions.
