A Stay of Adjudication Does Not Start The Two Year Limitations Clock

Dupey v. State, Minn.S.Ct., 8/5/2015.  The trial court stayed adjudication on a fifth degree drugs charge back in 2009 and placed Mr. Dupey on probation for five years.  On May 24, 2011, Mr. Dupey admitted to a probation violation, revoked the stay of adjudication, and imposed an executed prison sentence of thirteen months.  

On May 23, 2013, - the last day to do so if the two year limitations period only started on that May 24, 2011 date - Mr. Dupey filed a petition for post conviction relief, asking to be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea. The post conviction court summarily dismissed the petition as time-barred under the two year limitations period.  The court of appeals affirmed.  Writing for a unanimous court Justice Dietzen reverses, holding that a stay of adjudication is not a conviction or other event that triggers the two year limitations clock.

Past appellate decisions and positions taken by the two sides have been all over the place on what to make of a stay of adjudication. Read about that here. No matter as once again the dictionary becomes the law. The text of the pertinent statute, Minn.Stat. 590.01, subd. 4(a) (1) says that the petition has to be filed within two years of "the entry of judgment of conviction or sentence if no direct appeal is taken."  A "judgment of conviction" requires a plea, a verdict, an adjudication of guilt, and a sentence.  Rule 27.03, subd. 8 of the rules of criminal procedure is plain and clear about that.  A withholding of adjudication means just that: there's no adjudication of guilt.  Without that adjudication there can't be the entry of a judgment of conviction.

So, one down, one to go.  Is a stay of adjudication a "sentence"? Well, no, at least according to the court's favorite, "go to" source of "law", the dictionary.  A sentence is the imposition of punishment following a criminal conviction or adjudication of guilt says The American Heritage Dictionary, )5th ed. 2011).  Again, never mind that back in 2005 the court said that appeals from stays of adjudication in felony cases were to be treated as appeals from sentencings.  State v. Lee, 706 N.W.2d 491 (Minn. 2005).

The court sends the case back to the court of appeals to answer the question whether Mr. Dupey is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his petition.