Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 17 December 1987 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 16631,16665,s. 16631 |
| Citation | 113 Idaho 685,747 P.2d 94 |
| Parties | Billy Dean WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
G. LaMarr Kofoed, Public Defender, Fruitland, for petitioner-appellant.
Jim Jones, Atty. Gen., by Peter C. Erbland, Deputy Atty. Gen., Boise, for respondent.
These are consolidated appeals from two district court decisions summarily dismissing a total of three applications for post-conviction relief. We are asked to decide whether the court erred in denying relief from a judgment that imposed an allegedly excessive sentence and that was based upon an allegedly involuntary plea. We also must examine the procedure followed by the court in summarily dismissing the applications. For reasons explained below, we conclude that the summary dismissals were proper.
The facts are straightforward. Billy Dean Williams pled guilty and was convicted of a robbery committed while he was on probation for a prior burglary. His plea on the robbery charge was accompanied by an admission that he had violated the terms of his probation. Pursuant to a negotiated agreement, the prosecutor recommended that any sentence for the robbery be concurrent with the reinstated sentence for the burglary. The court imposed a ten-year indeterminate sentence for the robbery and ordered execution of a previously suspended five-year indeterminate sentence for the burglary, to be served concurrently. Williams did not appeal or seek a sentence reduction under I.C.R. 35.
Nearly a year later, Williams applied for post-conviction relief. Counsel was appointed to represent him. While the application was pending, Williams--acting pro se--filed a second application. The state moved for summary dismissal of both applications. The district court, Hon. Wayne P. Fuller presiding, convened a hearing to determine whether either application presented any genuine issue of material fact. At this hearing Williams' attorney indicated that he had conferred with his client and that the gravamen of the two applications was a request for reduction of the robbery sentence.
Subsequently, Judge Fuller issued a proposed set of findings of fact and conclusions of law, together with a proposed order dismissing the applications in twenty days, pursuant to I.C. § 19-4906(b). Within the twenty-day period, Williams filed another pro se pleading, this one denominated as a "Supplement to Post Conviction Relief and Motion in Opposition to States [sic] Motion to Dismiss and Order." The document alleged, in essence, that Williams' guilty plea had been involuntary. Judge Fuller held that the document contained no facts germane to the sentencing issue framed by the pending applications. Accordingly, he dismissed those applications but he directed that the new document be treated as a third application for post-conviction relief. The Hon. Jim R. Doolittle was assigned to determine the merits of the third application.
The state moved for dismissal of the third application. A hearing on the motion was held by Judge Doolittle. Finding no genuine issue of material fact raised by the application, Judge Doolittle entered an order of dismissal pursuant to I.C. § 19-4906(c). These consolidated appeals followed.
We first consider Williams' argument that Judges Fuller and Doolittle denied him due process by dismissing his applications without evidentiary hearings. We perceive the issue to be one of procedural due process. It is well recognized that the government cannot infringe upon a liberty interest without notice and an opportunity to be heard. Here, Williams received notice from the court regarding the proposed dismissal of his first two applications, and he was served notice of the state's motion to dismiss the third. He had an opportunity to be heard on those proposed or requested dismissals. The denial of evidentiary hearings was predicated upon an absence of genuine issues of material fact. A post-conviction application may be dismissed summarily where its allegations, even if true, would not entitle the applicant to relief. E.g., Clark v. State, ...
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