The Post Conviction Relief Act: Practice and Procedure

Both attorneys and members of the public often have questions regarding Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA). Fortunately, The Post Conviction Relief Act: Practice and Procedure, published by PBI Press, is a great resource for understanding the Act, relevant court rules, and case law that interprets the act. 

Written by Emeritus Professor of Law Thomas M. Place as an outgrowth of the course outlines he prepared for Penn State Dickinson Law School’s Prison Clinic, the book has two main components. It discusses Supreme and Superior court decisions regarding the procedural requirements and enumerated grounds for relief under the Act. It also analyzes the pertinent Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure (Chapter 9) that govern practice under the Act (p. ix).

The title also examines how the PCRA (codified at  42 Pa.C.S. § 9541 et seq.) relates to other post-conviction remedies, including the appeals process and federal habeas corpus.

Chapters include Grounds for Seeking Post-conviction Relief; Successive Petitions for Post-conviction Relief; Time for Filing, Petition, Jurisdiction, and Procedure; Standard of Review on Appeal; and more.    

The Appendixes helpfully publish the text of the PCRA (Appx. A), the PA Rules of Criminal Procedure governing petitions for post-conviction relief (Appx. B), and forms such as an Amended Petition for Post-Conviction Relief (Appx. D), among others. 

Appendix C provides a Summary of Statute, Rules, and Case Law Governing Capital and Non-Capital PCRA Cases. Formatted as a table, this content addresses topics such as when relief must be sought, eligibility for relief, burden of proof, evidentiary hearings, appointment of counsel, stay of execution, and more. 

Jenkins currently has both the 15th (2024) and 14th (2022) editions of The Post Conviction Relief Act: Practice and Procedure in our Pennsylvania collection. The 2024 updates touch on new case law, the significance of new DNA evidence, raising ineffectiveness of PCRA counsel in Rule 1925(b) statement, and more.