If your client seeks credit for the pretrial time he was incarcerated, there are two roads: one leads to the trial court, and the other ends in the Commonwealth Court.
TRIAL COURT
If the trial court’s sentence is ambiguous regarding credit for time served, you may file a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum with that court requesting clarification and/or correction of the sentence imposed.
If the trial court failed to award credit for time served as required by law, you may file a PCRA petition challenging the sentence on due process grounds.
COMMONWEALTH COURT
If the Bureau of Prisons erroneously calculated the credit for time served, you may file an original action in the Commonwealth Court challenging the BOP’s computation.
See Commonwealth v. Wheeler, 2024 PA Super 91 (May 3, 2024); Commonwealth v. Wyatt, 115 A.3d 876, 880 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2015); 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 761(a)(1) (“The Commonwealth Court shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions or proceedings … against the Commonwealth government, including any officer thereof, acting in his official capacity….”).
