COMMONWEALTH v. CHIMENTI

COMMONWEALTH v. CHIMENTI

PA Superior Court

2262 EDA 2018

Filed September 4, 2019

https://bit.ly/2k1ZsxA

A jury convicted Appellant of 1st-degree murder in 1983. After trial, under then-DA Edward Rendell, the DA’s Office and Appellant entered into an agreement in which the jury’s verdict would be vacated and Appellant would plead guilty to murder generally with the agreement that it would not be graded higher than murder in the 3rd degree in exchange for which Appellant would agree to cooperate with investigation into his trial counsel’s subordination of perjury of a defense witness. That defense witness, though, testified consistently with Appellant’s own trial testimony. The trial court frustrated that deal by denying post-verdict motions and sentencing Appellant in accordance with the jury’s verdict.

Under succeeding DAs, Appellant’s challenges to his conviction in state and federal courts were opposed. With the consent and support of the new DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, in 2018, Appellant filed a PCRA petition seeking to enforce the plea agreement. But the Superior Court ruled that the petition was untimely and did not qualify for the “governmental interference” exception to the PCRA timeliness bar under 42 Pa.C.S.A. 9545(b)(1)(i). The PA Supreme Court ruled decades earlier that the plea was not enforceable, and the current DA does not have the power to “usurp the power of the judiciary”.