Rule 720 Motion

If you have just been convicted of and sentenced for a criminal offense in Pennsylvania, your case is not at an end. Pennsylvania law provides many ways to challenge your conviction and sentence. One way is to file a Rule 720 post-sentence motion. This motion is filed with the trial judge who entered the judgment of conviction and the sentence against you. In effect, you are asking the trial judge to look at certain issues and decide whether irregularities in the trial process resulted in a wrongful conviction and/or sentence.

You are not required to file a Rule 720 motion to be able to challenge your conviction on appeal unless you believe that your conviction was against the “manifest weight of the evidence.” Such a challenge must be raised first in a Rule 720 motion.

Different from an Appeal

A Rule 720 motion is not the same as an appeal. If you appeal your conviction, you are asking a different court to review the trial record to determine whether legal errors occurred that affected the outcome of the trial. If you file a Rule 720 motion, you are asking the trial judge to look at errors in the trial proceeding. The post-sentence motion gives the court a second chance to look at irregularities in the proceedings and reverse or amend prior rulings relating to, for example, the admission or exclusion of evidence, if those irregularities resulted in the conviction.

  1. Rule 720 Motion
  2. Timing of Motion
  3. Reasons Supporting a Rule 720 Motion
  4. Procedural Considerations
  5. Effect on Appeal

Timing of Motion

If you have been convicted of a Pennsylvania criminal offense, you must immediately seek the assistance of an experienced post-conviction law firm to file a Rule 720 motion because you have only 10 days from the date your sentence was entered on the record to file the motion. This time limit is extremely short—only a little more than a week after sentencing. It gives you and your attorney little time to review the case and decide which issues to raise in the Rule 720 motion. The motion provides you a chance to have the court overturn the conviction and/or sentence without the drawn-out process of an appeal, so filing the motion can be a great benefit to you.

The 10-day deadline can, in limited circumstances, be extended if transcription of the record is required before the motion can be decided.

If your motion to the court is based on newly discovered evidence that would have affected your conviction, the 10-day limit does not apply. In that case, you must file the post-sentence motion “promptly” after discovering the evidence. Promptness varies depending on the circumstances of the discovery, so you must contact an attorney without delay.

  1. Rule 720 Motion
  2. Timing of Motion
  3. Reasons Supporting a Rule 720 Motion
  4. Procedural Considerations
  5. Effect on Appeal

Reasons Supporting a Rule 720 Motion

The following motions can be raised under Rule 720:

  • a motion challenging the validity of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or the denial of a motion to withdraw a plea of guilty or nolo contendere. For example, if you were not properly informed of all the consequences of your plea before you entered it, you may argue that your plea was invalid.
  • a motion for a judgment of acquittal. This motion challenges a verdict as based on insufficient evidence or as against the weight of the evidence. Insufficient evidence means, for instance, that the prosecutor failed to introduce evidence on every element of the crime with which you were charged. A verdict is against the weight of the evidence when the evidence pointing to your innocence is of such greater weight than the evidence pointing to your guilt that to give the evidence equal weight is to deny justice.
  • a motion in arrest of judgment is a claim that the indictment, information, or other document charging you with an offense was faulty and cannot support the verdict. You may also challenge a court’s jurisdiction over your case, show that the trial constitutes “double jeopardy” (being tried twice for the same crime), or demonstrate that the trial was held beyond the statute of limitations for (time limits for prosecuting) the offense you were charged with.
  • a motion for a new trial. A motion for a new trial can be based on a number of errors: the allowance of inadmissible evidence, the disallowance of evidence in your favor, prosecutorial misconduct, juror misconduct, or improper jury instructions, for example. However, you may not seek a new trial based on a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. This claim must be made in a PCRA petition. [hyperlink to PCRA page]
  • a motion to modify a sentence. This is a common motion filed with the trial court under Rule 720. You may seek to modify a sentence if the court, for instance, abused its discretion in ordering consecutive instead of concurrent sentences, gave you a harsher sentence than a co-defendant, or miscalculated time served when setting the sentence. This motion challenges only the calculation of a sentence; it does not challenge the verdict itself.

The reasons supporting your motion must be stated with “particularity” and “specificity.” A court will dismiss a Rule 720 motion if it is based on vague considerations such as justice or fairness.

  1. Rule 720 Motion
  2. Timing of Motion
  3. Reasons Supporting a Rule 720 Motion
  4. Procedural Considerations
  5. Effect on Appeal

Procedural Considerations

120-Day Decision

As stated above, the Rule 720 motion must be filed within 10 days of the date of sentencing. The court must decide the motion within 120 days of the date the motion was filed (unless a death sentence was imposed, in which case the motion must be “promptly” decided). The court may allow oral argument or a supplemental motion, but this does not extend this 120-day deadline. However, you are permitted to request one 30-day extension of the 120-day period, and the court, for “good cause shown,” may extend the period for 30 days.

Request for Reconsideration

If the court denies your Rule 720 motion, you may request the court to reconsider its decision. If the court grants your Rule 720 motion, the prosecutor may request reconsideration. Thee court has only 30 days from the date of its original decision on the Rule 720 motion to decide any application for reconsideration, unless the 30 days would extend beyond the 120-day period. In that case, the court would have only until the end of the 120-day period to decide the motion.

For example, if the court denied your motion 7 days after you filed it, the trial court would have until the 37th day after the motion to decide the request for reconsideration. If the court denied your motion 100 days after you filed it, the court would have only until the 120-day limit (so 20 days instead of 30) to decide a motion for reconsideration. It is critical that you file a motion for reconsideration as soon as possible after the court’s initial decision to give the court time to consider and rule on your motion.

If you cannot file a motion for reconsideration of the court’s decision on your Rule 720 post-sentence motion, or the court cannot decide the motion within the 120-day limit, you can appeal the decision. You may also appeal a court’s denial of your motion for reconsideration.

  1. Rule 720 Motion
  2. Timing of Motion
  3. Reasons Supporting a Rule 720 Motion
  4. Procedural Considerations
  5. Effect on Appeal

Effect on Appeal

If you do not file a Rule 720 motion, you must appeal your conviction and/or sentence within 30 days of sentencing. A Rule 720 motion extends the time for appeal. If you do file the motion, you have 30 days after the court decides the motion or 30 days after the 120-day period expires, whichever is sooner, to appeal the conviction. You may have a longer time if you file a motion for reconsideration. The 30-day time limit to appeal does not start to run until the court decides your reconsideration motion (or until expiration of the 120-day limit, whichever is sooner).

Filing a Rule 720 motion and/or requesting reconsideration may extend the time for filing an appeal from 30 days after sentencing to as long as 190 days after sentencing: 10 days to file the Rule 720 motion plus up to 120 days for the court’s decision plus one 30-day extension plus 30 days after that to appeal. Delaying the time for appeal may work to your advantage depending on the circumstances of your case. You and your attorney may need time to review the transcript carefully or to find that missing witness who can establish your innocence before you appeal. You must seek the advice of an experienced post-conviction attorney as soon as you can after sentencing so you and your attorney can decide the best way to approach appeal.

More reading: 234 Pa. Code Rule 720 (Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 720); 42 Pa. C.S. 5505 (reconsideration); 210 PRAP 1701 (reconsideration).