Chapman v. State

• Decision Date: 01 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 21763,21763
• Citation: 918 P.2d 602,128 Idaho 733
• Parties: Walter CHAPMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals

Page 602

918 P.2d 602

128 Idaho 733

Walter CHAPMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.

No. 21763.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

Feb. 1, 1996.

Rehearing Denied April 8, 1996.

Petition for Review Denied

July 2, 1996.

Appeal from the District Court of the Third Judicial District, Canyon County; Wayne P. Fuller, District Judge.

Order dismissing application for post-conviction relief, affirmed.

Van G. Bishop, Canyon County Public Defender, Nampa, for appellant.

Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; and Michael A. Henderson, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.

LANSING, Judge.

This is a post-conviction relief proceeding in which Walter Chapman alleges that he was deprived of due process in jurisdictional review proceedings at the North Idaho Correctional Institution (NICI). The district court summarily dismissed the action on the ground that Chapman's claim is barred by the statute of limitation. Chapman appeals, arguing that the statute of limitation did not begin to run until he became aware of his right to relief.

On March 16, 1989, Chapman was convicted of rape and received a unified fifteen-year sentence with a five-year minimum term of incarceration. The district court retained jurisdiction pursuant to I.C. § 19-2601(4), however, and Chapman was incarcerated at NICI during the period of retained jurisdiction. The district court subsequently relinquished jurisdiction and ordered execution of the original sentence. Chapman appealed, and this Court affirmed the judgment of conviction on September 6, 1991. State v. Chapman, 120 Idaho 466, 816 P.2d 1023 (Ct.App.1991).

Nearly three years later, on August 3, 1994, Chapman filed an application for post-conviction relief alleging various due process violations in the jurisdictional review proceedings at NICI. The State filed a motion to dismiss Chapman's application, asserting that it was untimely under the provisions of I.C. § 19-4902, and the district court granted the State's motion.

At the conclusion of Chapman's criminal appeal, I.C. § 19-4902 provided that an application for post-conviction relief may be filed within five years from "the expiration of the time for appeal or from determination of an appeal or from the determination of a proceeding following an appeal, whichever is later." 1988 Sess. Laws, ch. 76, p. 131. The remittitur from Chapman's appeal was issued on September 30, 1991. Therefore, under the law existing at the conclusion of Chapman's appeal, he had until September 30, 1996, to initiate an action for post-conviction relief. In 1993, however, the Idaho Legislature amended I.C. § 19-4902 to reduce the limitation period to one year. 1993 Sess. Laws, ch. 265, p. 898. This amendment took effect on July 1, 1993, I.C. § 67-510, and shortened the statute of limitation for Chapman's claim to one year from the effective date of the amendment. See University of Utah Hospital v. Pence, 104 Idaho 172, 176, 657 P.2d 469, 473 (1982); LaFon v. State, 119 Idaho 387, 807 P.2d 66 (Ct.App.1991); Mellinger v. State, 113 Idaho 31, 740 P.2d 73 (Ct.App.1987). In Pence, The Idaho Supreme Court addressed the impact on existing claims of a legislative enactment that reduced a statute of limitation. The Court stated:

[T]here is almost universal agreement that when a statutory period of limitation is amended to reduce the limitation period, the party whose right accrues before the effective date of the amendment cannot be heard to complain if he is given the full time allowed for action according to the terms of the amended statute from and after the effective date of the amended statute.

Id., at 175, 657 P.2d at 472. Hence, unless the limitation period for Chapman's action was somehow tolled, it expired on July 1, 1994, which is one year after the effective date of the 1993 amendment and more than one month before Chapman's application was filed.

Chapman argues, however, that the statute of limitation does not bar his action for two reasons. First, Chapman asserts that, due to the unique circumstances of his incarceration, strict application of § 19-4902 would violate his constitutional right to access to the courts. Chapman points out that from August 1990 until April 1993, he was not incarcerated at a correctional facility operated by the Idaho Board of Correction but, instead, was held as a state prisoner at the Shoshone County jail. In April 1993, he was moved from the Shoshone County jail to the Idaho Correctional Institution at Orofino (ICI). Chapman states that while confined in the Shoshone County jail he had no access to a law library, law books or the legal assistance of inmate law clerks. These conditions, he asserts, did not comply with the requirement articulated in Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977)--and applied to Idaho correctional institutions in Lindquist v. Idaho State Board of Corrections, 776 F.2d 851 (9th Cir.1985)--that inmates be afforded adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law in order to assure inmates meaningful access to the courts. According to Chapman, because of this deprivation of access to a law library or legal advisors while at the Shoshone County jail, he was ignorant of his right to pursue a post-conviction relief action for violation of due process rights at NICI and was denied access to the courts. Because of this violation of Bounds v. Smith standards, Chapman asserts that the statute of limitation should not bar his claim.

It is not necessary, however, that we determine in this case whether the statute of limitation for a prisoner's post-conviction action should be tolled as a remedy for incarceration under conditions failing to meet Bounds v. Smith standards. Even if the statute of limitation was thus tolled, Chapman's post-conviction application was still untimely, for the allegedly unconstitutional conditions of Chapman's confinement had terminated prior to July 1, 1993, the date...