# Commonwealth v. Fisher

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · March 30, 2005 · 582 Pa. 276

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9727163

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Robert FISHER, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** March 30, 2005
- **Citations:** 582 Pa. 276; 870 A.2d 864; 2005 Pa. LEXIS 612
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Cappy
- **Judges:** Cappy, Castille, Nigro, Newman, Saylor, Eakin, Baer, Gro
- **Cited by:** 32 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9727163

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- affirming the lower court's denial of defendant's petition for post-conviction relief due to lack of timeliness and determining that, even if it were timely, the new information attacking the validity of CBLA likely would not have compelled a different verdict
- stating that “[a] ruling or decision of a lower court will be affirmed if it can be supported on any basis[,] despite the lower court’s assignment of a wrong reason.”
- holding subsection 9545(b)(1)(ii) exception not met where articles containing information relied upon had “been available and discoverable for more than two years” prior to filing of petition
- rejecting PCRA petitioner's attempt to invoke Section 9545(b)(1)(ii)'s exception to the time-bar based on the date of issuance of a study on FBI methodologies because the facts underlying the study were previously available

## Opinion text

Chief Justice CAPPY
concurring.
I join the Majority Opinion in all respects save for its treatment of the study by the National Academies of Science (“NAS”). It was improper for the Majority to engage in a merits analysis of the NAS study in order to dismiss it as untimely. Upon my review of the Appellant’s brief, the Tobin affidavit, and the NAS study, I cannot accept Appellant’s position that the NAS study constitutes “newly-discovered” evidence. Information upon which the NAS study relies had been in existence far in advance of Appellant’s instant PCRA petition and therefore, the NAS study does not constitute after-discovered evidence. Cf Commonwealth v. Whitney, 572 Pa. 468 , 817 A.2d 473, 476 (2003)(finding study of the Philadelphia criminal justice system by Professors David Baldus and George Woodworth was not newly-discovered evidence because the information upon which it relied existed at the time for Appellant to file a timely PCRA petition).
Consequently, because Appellants PCRA petition was untimely on its face and does not qualify for the newly-discovered evidence exception to the timing requirement of the PCRA, *291 we are without jurisdiction to consider the merits of either the study or Appellants claims. Commonwealth v. Crews, 863 A.2d 498, 501 (Pa.2004)(stating that a PCRA court lacks jurisdiction to address claims in an untimely petition). The Majority Opinion’s views on the NAS study (Op. at 286-89, 870 A.2d at 870-71) and whether Appellant could be entitled to relief (Op. at 287-90, 870 A.2d at 871-72), in the absence of jurisdiction to do so, render these statements mere dicta. In these respects, I respectfully cannot join the Majority Opinion.
Justice N1GRO and Justice NEWMAN join this concurring opinion.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9727163. Public record. Not legal advice.