Commonwealth v. Watts

OPINION

Justice ORIE MELVIN.

We granted allowance of appeal to determine whether a judicial opinion qualifies as a previously unknown “fact” capable of triggering the timeliness exception codified at section 9545(b)(l)(ii) of the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546, which applies if “the facts upon which the claim is predicated were unknown to the petitioner and could not have been ascertained by the exercise of due diligence.” The Superior Court found that a serial PCRA petition was timely under section 9545(b)(l)(ii) because it had been filed less than sixty days…