1252
No. 01-894
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
2002 MT 186N
DAVID L. BLAKE,
Petitioner and Appellant,
v.
MIKE MAHONEY, Warden, and the
STATE OF MONTANA,
Respondents.
APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Tenth Judicial District,
In and for the County of Judith Basin,
The Honorable E. Wayne Phillips, Judge presiding.
COUNSEL OF RECORD:
For Appellant:
David L. Blake, Deer Lodge, Montana (
pro se)
For Respondents:
Mike McGrath, Montana Attorney General, Pamela P. Collins, Assistant
Montana Attorney General; John P. Connor, Jr., Special Deputy Judith Basin
County Attorney, James A. Hubble, Judith Basin County Attorney, Stanford,
Montana
Submitted on Briefs: April 4, 2002
Decided: August 27, 2002
Filed:
__________________________________________
Clerk
Justice James C. Nelson delivered the Opinion of the Court.
Pursuant to Section I, Paragraph 3(c), Montana Supreme Court 1996 Internal
Operating Rules, the following decision shall not be cited as precedent. The
decision shall be filed as a public document with the Clerk of the Supreme
Court and shall be reported by case title, Supreme Court cause number, and
result to the State Reporter Publishing Company and to West Group in the
quarterly table of noncitable cases issued by this Court.
-
David Blake (Blake) appeals the denials of his petitions for a writ of habeas
corpus and, in the alternative, for postconviction relief by the Tenth Judicial
District Court, Judith Basin County. We affirm.
-
We address the following issues on appeal:
-
1. Did the District Court err in denying the petition for a writ of habeas
corpus?
2. Did the District Court err in denying the petition for postconviction
relief?
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Blake was charged with and pled guilty to the deliberate homicide of Hobson
rancher, Wayne Stevenson (Stevenson). Blake admitted that on or about March
27, 1994, he shot Stevenson with a .22 caliber rifle, buried Stevensons
body, and made a ransom call to his wife. The district court sentenced Blake
to eighty years for the homicide and added ten additional years for the use of
a weapon. The court ordered that the sentences run consecutively and that
Blake be ineligible for parole or participation in a supervised release
program. Judgment was entered on November 18, 1994.
-
Previous to this action, Blake directly appealed the judgment against him,
arguing that the district court erred in denying him eligibility for parole or
participation in a supervised release program. We affirmed the trial court
sentence, concluding that the court did not abuse its discretion in setting
Blakes sentence. State v. Blake
(1995), 274 Mont. 349, 353, 908 P.2d 676, 678.
-
On July 13, 2001, Blake filed in District Court the petitions at issue here: a
petition for writ of habeas corpus or, in the alternative, a petition for
postconviction relief. Blake argued that the ten-year sentence enhancement for
the use of a weapon was improper under Apprendi v. New Jersey
(2000), 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435, and that ineffective
assistance of counsel induced him to plead guilty.
-
The District Court denied the petition for writ of habeas corpus on the grounds
that the writ is not available to challenge the validity of a sentence when
the person has been adjudged guilty in a court of record and exhausted the
remedy of appeal. The court also denied the petition for postconviction relief
on numerous grounds. Blake now appeals these denials.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
This Court reviews conclusions of law integral to a trial courts
dismissal of a petition for postconviction relief, as we review any other
conclusion of law, to determine whether the conclusions are correct.
Dawson v. State
, 2000 MT 219, ¶ 18, 301 Mont. 135, ¶ 18, 10 P.3d 49, ¶ 18. We
review a trial courts findings of fact regarding postconviction relief to
determine whether the findings are clearly erroneous. State v. Wright
, 2001 MT 282, ¶ 9, 307 Mont. 349, ¶ 9, 42 P.3d 753, ¶ 9;
State v. Sheppard (1995), 270 Mont. 122, 127, 890 P.2d 754, 757.
III. DISCUSSION
1. Did the District Court err in denying the petition for a writ of habeas
corpus?
Under § 46-22-101(2), MCA, the writ of habeas corpus is not available to
challenge a conviction or sentence of a defendant convicted in a court of
record who has also exhausted their remedy of appeal.
See also Rudolph v. Day
(1995), 273 Mont. 309, 311, 902 P.2d 1007, 1008. In this case, Blake was
convicted in a court of record and he exhausted his remedy of appeal as
demonstrated in Blake
, 274 Mont. at 353, 908 P.2d at 678. Therefore, the District Court properly
denied the writ of habeas corpus in concluding that the writ is not available
to Blake.
2. Did the District Court err in denying the petition for postconviction
relief?
Blake first asserts that under
Apprendi
, the trial court erred in adding an additional ten years to his sentence for
the use of a weapon because the court did not submit the facts justifying this
increased sentence to a jury. Blake next argues that his plea was involuntary
due to ineffective assistance of counsel. He asserts his defense counsel
failed to explain the difference between deliberate homicide and mitigated
deliberate homicide and also led him to believe that he would be eligible for
parole after five years.
The District Court held that Blake was time-barred from pursuing a petition for
postconviction relief by the five-year statute of limitation and that the
exception for newly discovered evidence of innocence did not apply to Blake
because the exception only applied to actual, as opposed to legal, innocence.
The court also held that Blake was procedurally barred from postconviction
review because he did not raise these arguments in direct appeal and that
Apprendi does not apply retroactively to Blake.
-
We have previously held that defendants convicted prior to April 24, 1997, are
subject to a five-year statute of limitation in seeking postconviction relief.
Hawkins v. Mahoney
, 1999 MT 82, ¶ 10, 294 Mont. 124, ¶ 10, 979 P.2d 697, ¶ 10;
§ 46-21-102, MCA (1991). Therefore, Blake had until November 18, 1999, to
file his petition, five years from the date judgment was entered against him.
Blake filed the petitions at issue here on July 13, 2001. Consequently, Blake
missed the deadline and is time-barred from seeking postconviction relief.
The only exception to this statute of limitation is when there is a fundamental
miscarriage of justice such that a jury could find, under new evidence, that
the defendant is innocent of the crime. State v. Redcrow
, 1999 MT 95, ¶¶ 33-37, 294 Mont. 252, ¶¶ 33-37, 980 P.2d
622, ¶¶ 33-37. This is a narrowly interpreted exception that focuses
on actual innocence. Redcrow, ¶ 37;
see also State v. Nichols
, 1999 MT 212, ¶ 21, 295 Mont. 489, ¶ 21, 986 P.2d 1093, ¶ 21
(issues regarding sentence enhancement do not equate to actual
innocence) overruled on other grounds by State v. Whitehorn
, 2002 MT 54, 309 Mont.63, 50 P.3d 121.
-
In this case, Blake has not presented any evidence that he was actually
innocent of the crime for which he pled guilty. Blakes arguments
regarding the sentence enhancement and ineffective assistance of counsel have
nothing to do with his innocence. In fact, like the sentence enhancement
issue in Nichols
, there is no dispute here regarding whether Blake used a weapon. Further,
Blakes argument that his counsel lead him to believe he would be paroled
in five years has nothing to do with innocence.
-
In addition, while Blake asserts that his counsel failed to inform him of the
difference between mitigated deliberate homicide and deliberate homicide,
again, the distinction between the two does not involve actual innocence.
Rather, both types of crimes involve purposely or knowingly causing the death
of another human being. Compare
§ 45-5-102, MCA, and § 45-5-103, MCA. Therefore, we hold that the
District Courts determination that Blakes arguments did not involve
actual innocence is supported by substantial evidence. Accordingly, there was
no fundamental miscarriage of justice in this case that would fit the
exception to the five-year statute of limitation. Consequently, the District
Court was correct in deciding that postconviction relief is no longer available
to Blake. Because we hold that the District Court correctly determined Blake
was time-barred and did not meet an exception to the time-bar, we do not
consider the merits of the other grounds cited by the District Court.
IV. CONCLUSION
The District Court correctly determined that the writ of habeas corpus was not
available to Blake and that Blake was time-barred from pursuing a petition for
postconviction relief.
We affirm.
/S/ JAMES C. NELSON
We Concur:
/S/ JIM REGNIER
/S/ TERRY N. TRIEWEILER
/S/ W. WILLIAM LEAPHART
/S/ JIM RICE
Back to top