A criminal defendant can use a timely filed Post-Conviction Relief Act petition to remedy an illegal sentence handed out under a mandatory minimum scheme found to be unconstitutional, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled.
In a split en banc opinion, the court found July 12 in Commonwealth v. Ciccone that Sean Ciccone’s 2011 sentence for drug-related charges was rendered illegal when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 in Alleyne v. United States that facts giving rise to mandatory minimum sentences like Ciccone’s must be proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Ciccone had been sentenced to 42 to 60 months’ incarceration following a negotiated plea agreement.
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