No Abuse of Discretion in Summary Dismissal of Post Conviction Petition in Which Legal Assertions Were Unsupported by Factual Allegations

Matakis v. State, Minn.S.Ct., 4/8/2015.  Chief Justice Gildea, over three dissenters – Justices Anderson, Page and Lillehaug, affirms the decision of the court of appeals that Mr. Matakis failed to allege sufficient facts to entitle him to either a hearing on or relief from his conviction and sentence.  You can read about the court of appeals opinion here.  Counsel for Mr. Matakis had filed a rather skimpy petition in which he promised more details later.  The state sought dismissal on the merits of the petition rather than arguing that it was defective.  Justice Anderson’s dissent thought that the abrupt dismissal of the petition without any notice or warning to Mr. Matakis’s counsel was an abuse of discretion, even more so because Mr. Matakis had not had a direct appeal of his conviction.