Post Conviction Challenge to Conditional Release Term Imposed in Violation of Plea Agreement Arises at Time of Imposition of Term

Bee Yang v. State, Minn.Ct.App., 11/28/11, review granted & stayed, 1/17/12.  In January 2006, in accordance with a plea agreement, the trial court stayed execution of a 21 month sentence, during which the court told Mr. Yang that he would be subject to a five year conditional release term if his sentence were executed.  At the end of the year, when the trial court did execute that sentence, the court also informed Mr. Yang that the term of the conditional release was ten years not five.  More than two years later, Mr. Yang filed a post conviction to complain that the ten year conditional release term violated his due process rights and the plea agreement.

The post conviction court denied the petition as time-barred under Minn.Stat. 590.01, subd. 4(c).  The court of appeals upheld the post conviction court.  A post conviction petition must be filed within two years of either entry of judgment of conviction if not appeal is taken; or of an appellate court’s disposition of that direct appeal.  There are exceptions, one of which Mr. Yang invoked, which permits filing a petition that is not frivolous and is in the interests of justice.  However,a petition that relies on one of the exceptions must be filed within “two years of the date the claim arises.”  Here, the claim arose when the court imposed the ten year conditional release term instead of the five year term that had been promised at sentencing.

The Minnesota Supreme Court is reviewing this ruling in conjunction with several others that raise the same issue.