In Commonwealth v. Smith, the defendant was convicted of robbery and related offenses. After the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the convictions, he sought allocatur. Before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on the petition, the defendant filed a PCRA petition. The PCRA court acknowledged that the filing was premature but chose to accept it as of the date that allocatur was denied. The Superior Court ruled that the PCRA court did not have jurisdiction to do so. Thus, the Court quashed the appeal because the PCRA petition, as well as the PCRA court’s order denying it, were both legal nullities.
