Untimely Service Upon State Public Defender, in State Sentencing Appeal, of Notice of Appeal Defeats Court’s Jurisdiction to Hear Appeal

State v. McKinney, Minn.Ct.App., 12/9/2013.  Mr. McKinney pleaded guilty to domestic assault by strangulation and got a stayed sentence.  The state appealed the sentence because they thought that Mr. McKinney had a higher criminal history score and should have gone to prison.  Because the state screwed up the procedural steps required for such an appeal, the court of appeals dismissed it.

Specifically, the state failed to serve the notice of appeal on the state public defender.  The court of appeals determined that such service is jurisdictional.  Because the state was three days late in serving the notice on the state public defender, the court of appeals had no jurisdiction to her the appeal.