Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. John Jay Sheppard, Appellant (2016)

Appellant, John Jay Sheppard, appeals, pro se, from the order denying his request for discovery materials, court records, and transcripts relevant to his 1991 murder conviction. Sheppard contends that the trial court violated his Constitutional rights when it denied his request. We affirm.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied review of Sheppard's sentence of life imprisonment on March 15, 1995. Sheppard did not file an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Sheppard has since filed three separate petitions pursuant to the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”). The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied review of the dismissal of Sheppard's most recent PCRA petition on January 27, 2014.

On October 16, 2015, Sheppard filed the instant motion requesting discovery material, court records, and transcripts. The motion did not set forth any theory supporting a collateral attack on his judgment of sentence, and did not assert any exception to the PCRA's time-bar. Instead, the three-paragraph motion merely requests these materials “for appellate review.”

As the Commonwealth and trial court succinctly note, Sheppard's right to the requested materials is dependent on the existence of a relevant underlying court proceeding. See Commonwealth v. Martin, 705 A.2d 1337 (Pa. Super. 1998). As the record does not indicate the existence of any such proceeding, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying Sheppard's motion. We therefore affirm.

Order affirmed.

JUDGMENT ORDER BY PANELLA, J.