Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
The Habeas Corpus Project
As many of you know, we have initiated a unique action in the Pennsylvania court system called a Class Action Habeas Corpus. This action has been filed in numerous jurisdictions and locals, where we are challenging the legality of the penalty known as Life Without The Possibility Of Parole (LWOP). To our knowledge, no one has ever tried to make a class action out of a habeas petition. Theoretically, it is possible and permitted under the Rules of Civil Procedure where if decided upon, it would affect the masses serving LWOP sentences.
Since that initial filing, the action has taken on a life of its own, with varying decisions throughout the court system and variations of the argument. It has been difficult coordinating and keeping track of it all. What is clear about the filing is that many if not all courts have tip toed, and outright refused to address the issues within. Some courts have incorrectly deemed it a secondary PCRA and thereby subjected it to the Time Bar constraints. While others have held some legal proceedings to determine the merits.
As you may or may not know, the Time Bar (sometimes identified as 9545for the statutory section it is located under) is the defacto go to defense of the state when petitioners raise claims to challenge their conviction. It is a procedural rule that prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from raising new issues on a PCRA motion, unless they fit the criteria allowed by the law. This Time Bar has consistently been used to arbitrarily strike many valid claims down that may not have been evident at the time of trial. It is a strong defense that allows a court to ignore the validity of some claims and dismiss them without even a cursory review, as many times, it is not the judge dismissing PCRA actions, but Clerks.
Present Status: Pending in numerous jurisdictions.
At the moment, Shawn Sharp has brought the action before the Pa. Supreme Court, and they are in the process of filing briefs and challenging the legality of the dismissal in the lower courts. The problem is that the courts have reclassified the action - and ignored the Habeas Corpus aspect - as a PCRA. This posed an interesting question: Is the Writ of Habeas Corpus still alive under the Pennsylvania Constitution? From our experience with this action and the numerous pursuits to enact Habeas Proceedings, it appears that the Great Writ has been severely minimized, or eliminated outright, when in fact no court of state should hold the power or ability to remove this petition from the hands of defendants. However, this appears to have happened.
While much of this is neither good nor bad, we anticipated the long road that this fight would take us. The main problem is that the courts do not have a sufficient remedy or process to address such an action. Think of it this way, it is easier to ignore the issue and utilize a standard barring system to eliminate the challenge, than it is to say that it’s wrong.
This does not deter our challenge though. We are committed to this fight and will continue to argue it at the last court we can go to. The reality is this, we NEVER expected any court in Pennsylvania to give us wind. Yet, a few decisions did come that were favorable to us in the nature of proceeding. These decisions have advocated the usage of the Writ, and even transferred it to courts of other jurisdictions with instructions to treat it as a Writ. However, we have not obtained a decision that effectively shines a light on the flaw of the sentence (LWOP). So, in the near future, once done with the state system, we have every intention to take the action to Federal Court once we have exhausted the state remedies.
Stay Tuned.