Martinez v. State

• Decision Date: 30 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 22735,22735
• Citation: 130 Idaho 530,944 P.2d 127
• Parties: Salvador MARTINEZ, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals

Page 127

944 P.2d 127

130 Idaho 530

Salvador MARTINEZ, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.

No. 22735.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

May 30, 1997.

Rehearing Denied July 15, 1997.

Petition for Review Denied

Oct. 6, 1997.

Andrew Parnes, Ketchum, for petitioner-appellant.

Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General, John C. McKinney, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.

LANSING, Judge.

This is an appeal from a district court order summarily dismissing an application for post-conviction relief on the ground that the action was untimely. The appellant raises several challenges to the application of the statute of limitation in this case.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On June 12, 1990, a jury found Salvador Martinez guilty of rape, I.C. § 18-6101, forcible According to Martinez's allegations, in December 1992, Idaho correctional authorities transferred him to a California state prison to serve his Idaho sentences under an interstate compact regarding the housing of prisoners. In the spring of 1994, friends of Martinez retained an Idaho attorney to represent him. On June 21, 1995, while Martinez was still imprisoned in California, the attorney filed in the Idaho district court in which Martinez was convicted an action under the Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act (UPCPA), I.C. § 19-4901 et seq. The application for post-conviction relief alleged that Martinez received ineffective assistance from the court-appointed attorney who represented him in the criminal case. The district court issued a notice of intent to summarily dismiss Martinez's postconviction application on the basis that the action was barred by the one-year statute of limitation, I.C. § 19-4902. In response to this notice Martinez raised several challenges to the constitutionality of the statute of limitation and argued that even if it was constitutional, its running had been tolled due to Martinez's out-of-state incarceration without access to Idaho courts. The district court rejected Martinez's arguments and dismissed the application. This appeal followed.

sexual penetration by use of a foreign object, I.C. § 18-6608, and kidnapping in the second degree, I.C. §§ 18-4501, -4503. Martinez was sentenced to an indeterminate life sentence with a twenty-year minimum term of incarceration for rape, an identical sentence for forcible sexual penetration, and an indeterminate twenty-five year sentence with a minimum term of fifteen years for kidnapping. The court ordered that all of the sentences be served concurrently. The judgment of conviction and sentences were affirmed by this Court in July 1992. State v. Martinez, 122 Idaho 193, 832 P.2d 764 (Ct.App.1992).

II. ANALYSIS

Idaho Code § 19-4906 authorizes summary disposition of UPCPA actions, either pursuant to a motion of a party or upon the court's own initiative. Chouinard v. State, 127 Idaho 836, 839, 907 P.2d 813, 816 (Ct.App.1995); Follinus v. State, 127 Idaho 897, 899, 908 P.2d 590, 592 (Ct.App.1995). Summary dismissal is proper only when the evidence presents no genuine issues of material fact which, if resolved in the applicant's favor, would entitle the applicant to the requested relief. If such a factual issue is presented, an evidentiary hearing must be conducted. Gonzales v. State, 120 Idaho 759, 763, 819 P.2d 1159, 1163 (Ct.App.1991). However, if the application presents only questions of law, disposition on the pleadings and the record is appropriate. Daugherty v. State, 102 Idaho 782, 783, 640 P.2d 1183, 1184 (Ct.App.1982). On review of a dismissal of a post-conviction application without an evidentiary hearing, we will determine whether a genuine and material issue of fact is demonstrated in the record and whether one party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ricca v. State, 124 Idaho 894, 896, 865 P.2d 985, 987 (Ct.App.1993). Here, since the State submitted no evidence to controvert Martinez's factual assertions, the facts are undisputed. The district court's summary dismissal order was predicated upon its conclusion that Martinez's claims are barred by the statute of limitation. In evaluating a post-conviction claim for summary disposition, the court assumes the truth of the applicant's allegations of fact. Cooper v. State, 96 Idaho 542, 545, 531 P.2d 1187, 1190 (1975); Ramirez v. State, 113 Idaho 87, 88, 741 P.2d 374, 375 (Ct.App.1987). Therefore, we must address only whether, assuming the truth of the facts alleged by Martinez, his claims are time-barred. Our review of the district court's construction and application of the limitation statute is a matter of free review. Freeman v. State, 122 Idaho 627, 628, 836 P.2d 1088, 1089 (Ct.App.1992).

The limitation period for post-conviction relief actions is specified in I.C. § 19-4902, which provides that an application "may be filed at any time within one (1) year from the expiration of the time for appeal or from the determination of an appeal or from the determination of proceedings following an appeal, whichever is later." At the time

of Martinez's conviction, this statute provided a five-year limitation period, but a 1993 amendment shortened the period from five years to one year. 1993 Idaho Sess. Laws, ch. 265 § 1, at 898. This amendment took effect on July 1, 1993, and reduced the statute of limitation for Martinez's claim to one year from the effective date of the amendment. See Esquivel v. State, 128 Idaho 390, 913 P.2d 1160 (1996); Chapman v. State, 128 Idaho 733, 734, 918 P.2d 602, 603 (Ct.App.1996). Because Martinez's application was not filed within this one-year period, the district court deemed the action to be time-barred.

A. Waiver

Martinez first argues that the statute of limitation defense was waived by the State because it was not asserted in the State's answer to Martinez's application. He avers that it was therefore improper for the district court to dismiss the application on this basis. Martinez relies upon I.R.C.P. 8(c), which provides that a party must affirmatively plead the statute of limitation as a defense.

Martinez's argument overlooks the fact that I.C. § 19-4906(b) authorizes the trial court to raise issues sua sponte. That statute provides:

When a court is satisfied, on the basis of the application, the answer or motion, and the record, that the applicant is not entitled to post-conviction relief and no purpose would be served by any further proceedings, it may indicate to the parties its intention to dismiss the application and its reasons for so doing. The applicant shall be given an opportunity to reply within 20 days to the proposed dismissal. In light of the reply, or on default thereof, the court may order the application dismissed....

Under the terms of this statute, a trial court, in determining whether the applicant "is not entitled to post-conviction relief," is not limited to defenses pleaded by the State. Indeed, the trial court may issue a notice of its intent to dismiss before the State has filed any response whatsoever to the application. Accordingly, it was proper for the district court to consider the statute of limitation though this defense was not raised by the State. ¹

B. Motion for Transcripts

In June 1994, more than a year before the filing of his application for post-conviction relief, Martinez's attorney filed a motion for an order requiring preparation of the transcript of the criminal trial at the State's expense to facilitate his investigation of the grounds for a post-conviction action. This motion was ultimately granted by the district court, and the transcripts were completed by late September 1994. Martinez argues that this motion for the preparation of the trial transcript tolled the limitation period and that the statutory period did not expire until one year after the determination of the motion. He relies upon that portion of I.C. § 19-4902 which allows commencement of a post-conviction action within one year "from the determination of proceedings following an appeal." According to Martinez, his motion for the preparation of trial transcripts was such a proceeding.

Martinez's argument is without merit. The same language from Section 19-4902 was considered by this Court in Freeman, 122 Idaho at 628, 836 P.2d at 1089. We there held that a "proceeding following an appeal" means a proceeding conducted in the criminal action, not in collateral judicial proceedings. We explained:

[A] "proceeding following an appeal" may include a remand of the criminal case to the trial court as a consequence of the direct appeal from a judgment of conviction, for example, but does not encompass a separately filed proceeding under the UPCPA or one for relief such as by way of a writ of habeas corpus, subsequent to the judgment of conviction.

Id. at 629, 836 P.2d at 1090. As explained in Freeman, the UPCPA affords the opportunity for a collateral challenge outside of the stream of events and procedure that lead to the finality of a conviction in the same proceeding Martinez's judgment of conviction became final when it was affirmed on appeal in July 1992. There was no remand from the appellate court for further proceedings in the criminal action. It follows that Martinez's motion for preparation of the trial transcript, for use in his post-conviction action, did not affect the time for filing an application for postconviction relief.

in which the conviction is pronounced. That finality may be achieved by a failure to appeal the judgment of conviction or by an affirmance of the judgment on appeal or by the completion of the case consistent with directives given with a remand from the appellate court and exhaustion of further appellate remedies. Id. Therefore, the time limit to file an application for post-conviction relief "is not renewed or extended by any other collateral post-judgment proceeding." Id.

C. Ex Post Facto Law

Martinez also argues that the shortened statute of limitation is an unconstitutional ex post facto law when applied to...