Commonwealth v. Brown

OPINION

Justice SAYLOR.

Appeal was allowed to determine whether the filing of an untimely notice of appeal displaces the statutory one-year period for filing a state post-conviction petition, as suggested by a passage from this Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Murray, 562 Pa. 1, 753 A.2d 201 (2000).1

Appellant was convicted of possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver, and criminal conspiracy. In May 2001, the trial court imposed a sentence of incarceration spanning from four to eight years. Appellant secured substitute counsel, who sought to make an oral…