Request to Reduce Length of Sentence Without Merit

Townsend v. State, Minn.S.Ct., 8/7/2013.  In this his fifth petition for post conviction relief Mr. Townsend asked the court to reduce the length of his sentence.  The trial court had sentenced Mr. Townsend to life with possibility of release on a murder one conviction, and then at a subsequent hearing to a consecutive seventy-two months on an attempted murder two conviction.  In this latest court missive, Mr. Townsend asked that the two sentences be ordered to be served concurrently and to switch the jail credits previously given on the seventy-two month sentence to the life sentence.

Mr. Townsend actually filed his papers under Rule 27.03, subd. 9.  The trial court treated the pleading as a post conviction petition and threw it out as time barred.  Justice Dietzen – Lillehaug not participating – ducks the question whether either the statutory time bar under the post conviction statute or the procedural bar under Knaffla apply to a motion under Rule 27.03 by concluding that Mr. Townsend’s request lacks merit. 

Mr. Townsend argued that the consecutive sentences were a departure under the Guidelines that were not supported by sufficient reasons.  The problem with that argument is that the Guidelines, II.F.2 (1992) said that consecutive sentences were not a departure when the crimes were against different persons.  Mr. Townsend’s other argument had to do with application of jail credits.  Jail credits are calculated from the date of arrest to the date of imposition of sentence.  At the time of the sentence of life, Mr. Townsend actually only had 352 days of jail credit.  However, at his attorney’s request, the trial court had given him five hundred ninety-seven days of jail credit – the calculation from date of arrest to date of sentence of the 72 months - against the seventy-two month consecutive sentence.  Even though Mr. Townsend is correct that jail credits should have been applied to the life sentence, in this instance this would actually have increased the overall length of imprisonment.  By putting all of the jail credits on the seventy-two month sentence the court cut Mr. Townsend just a bit of slack.