No Abuse of Discretion In Denying Evidentiary Hearing on Post Conviction Petition

Lussier v. State, Minn.S.Ct., 9/10/2014.  Mr. Lussier pled guilty to first degree murder while committing domestic abuse for the stabbing death of his wife.  During the plea hearing, Mr. Lussier admitted that during an argument with his wife he struck her at least once.  He then said that he picked up a knife intending to take his own life but instead unintentionally stabbed his wife during a struggle over the knife.  To shore up the plea, the state introduced the grand jury transcript, something to which Mr. Lussier did not object.  Mr. Lussier then agreed that at a trial witnesses would have testified “much in accordance with the grand jury testimony.  In fact, Mr. Lussier hadn’t seen that transcript.

After a while, Mr. Lussier filed a pro se motion to withdraw his plea, saying that it was manifestly unjust because the plea was not accurate, intelligent or voluntary.  With the assistance of counsel he later added that neither the plea hearing nor the grand jury transcript established a factual basis for finding a “past pattern of domestic abuse” or “ extreme indifference to human life”, both of which are elements of the offense.  The post conviction court denied the petition and the supreme court upheld that denial.  Lussier v. State, 821 N.W.2d 581 (Minn. 2012). 

Mr. Lussier then filed this second post conviction petition.  He restated his claim about the guilty plea, and he added a claim that his post conviction attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to request an evidentiary hearing.  This time, the post conviction court denied the petition, saying that the challenge to the plea was procedurally barred and that there were no disputed facts on the effectiveness claim that entitled him to a hearing.

Applying the Knaffla rule, Justice Stras affirms the denial of the repeated claim about the guilty plea.  On the effectiveness of counsel claim, the court observes that the only facts that had a bearing on whether his plea lacked an adequate factual basis were the facts established by and contained within the record itself, which included the grand jury transcript and the transcript of the plea hearing.  There were no other facts in need of presentation at the post conviction stage that necessitated an evidentiary hearing.  For that reason, Mr. Lussier cannot prevail on is ineffectiveness of counsel claim.