A Rule 27.03 Motion To Correct Sentence Is Not Subject to Post Conviction Limitations Term

Reynolds v. State, Minn.S.Ct., 12/7/2016.  Mr. Reynolds pleaded guilty to failing to register as a predatory offender.  A year and a half later, the trial court modified Mr. Reynolds' sentence to include a ten year conditional release term, apparently because he had been assigned to a risk level III.  Four years after that, Mr. Reynolds moved under Rule 27.03, subd. 9 to correct his sentence; he said, and no one disputed his assertion, that the conditional release term could only be imposed if he had either admitted to the risk level III status or a jury had found that status.  A Blakely error.

The district court treated the Rule 27 motion as a post conviction petition and said that it was untimely under the limitations provisions. The court of appeals reversed.  Chief Justice Gildea affirmed the court of appeals.  The court agreed that imposition of the conditional release term in violation of Blakely was not authorized by law.  The court also rejected, on separation of powers, the state's fall back argument that the legislatively enacted two year limitations period for post conviction petitions applied to a judicially created rule of criminal procedure.  And, the court declined to accept the statutory limitations period as a matter of comity:

Based on this analysis, interpreting the exclusivity provision in Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 2, to require application of the postconviction statute’s limitations period to Reynolds’s claim unconstitutionally encroaches on the judicial sentencing power. Even with these constitutional deficiencies, however, we may accept the limitations period in the postconviction statute as a matter of comity. See Losh, 721 N.W.2d at 892. We decline to do so. We previously recognized the importance of Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9, and refused to acquiesce to a statute as a matter of comity that “could limit a defendant’s ability to obtain relief from an illegal sentence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9.” See Losh, 721 N.W.2d at 892. We reach the same conclusion in this case.