Commonwealth v. Stokes

OPINION

Justice GREENSPAN.

This is a collateral capital appeal from an order dismissing Appellant Ralph Trent Stokes’s second petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa.C.S. §§ 9541-9546. Because we conclude that the petition was not timely, we affirm the order of the PCRA court.

On March 11, 1982, Appellant and Donald Jackson robbed Appellant’s employer, a restaurant known as Smokin’ Joe’s Korner, in Philadelphia. Armed with guns, Appellant and Jackson entered the restaurant before it opened. Appellant herded the employees into the walk-in refrigerator and threatened…