COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA v. SHAWN LAMAR BURTON (2017)

CONCURRING OPINION

I join the majority opinion based upon the precedent established by Commonwealth v. Bennett, 593 Pa. 382, 930 A.2d 1264 (2007), supplemented by the present opinion's developed explication of the unreasonableness in enforcing a strong presumption of access to public records at least as against unrepresented prisoners.

To the extent that the majority undertakes to reaffirm and buttress the logic of Bennett, however, I continue to have great difficulty with the approach to statutory construction by which the Bennett majority decoupled the “facts” contemplated by Section 9545(b)(ii) of the PCRA from the “claims” serving as the explicit bases for statutory post-conviction relief per Section 9543(a). See Bennett, 593 Pa. at 402-10, 930 A.2d at 1275-80 (Saylor, J., dissenting).

CHIEF JUSTICE SAYLOR