Lunzer v. State, Minn.Ct.App., 2/1/2016. Ms. Lunzer pleaded guilty to a fifth degree drugs crime and received a stay of adjudication. A few years later, the district court discharged her from probation and dismissed the charge. When Ms. Lunzer found out about the various problems that befell the St. Paul Police Department Crime Lab she filed a post conviction petition seeking to withdraw her plea. There was also the small matter of getting charged with a new drug crime the punishment for which could be enhanced because of the first drug charge. The post conviction court summarily denied the petition, concluding that the petition was time barred and that none of the exceptions to the limitations provisions applied.
The court of appeals wanted to know whether the post conviction court had subject matter jurisdiction. Now, a stay of adjudication in a felony case is appealable as an appeal from a sentence. The problem is, just last year in Dupey v. State, 868 N.W.2d 36 (Minn. 2015) the supreme court said that a stay of adjudication is not a judgment of conviction or sentence that triggers the limitations provisions for filing a post conviction petition. For Ms. Lunzer that meant:
Because a stay of adjudication under Minn. Stat. § 152.18, subd. 1, is not a conviction for purposes of the postconviction relief statute of limitations, it clearly follows that a person who receives such a stay is not “convicted of a crime” for purposes of Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 1. Hence, such a person cannot seek postconviction relief.
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