Gutale v. State

435 P.3d 728, 364 Or. 502
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 28, 2019
DocketCC C131617CV (SC S065136)
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 435 P.3d 728 (Gutale v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gutale v. State, 435 P.3d 728, 364 Or. 502 (Or. 2019).

Opinions

NELSON, J.

**504A petition for post-conviction relief "must be filed within two years" of the conviction becoming final, unless the petition falls within the escape clause. ORS 138.510(3). A petition falls within the escape clause if the "grounds for relief asserted *** could not reasonably have been raised" within the limitation period. Id. This case concerns the meaning of the escape clause.

Here, petitioner alleged in a petition for post-conviction relief that his trial counsel had failed to inform him of the immigration consequences of his guilty plea to a class A misdemeanor and, through that omission, led petitioner to believe that there would be no immigration consequences. Based on that alleged failure, petitioner asserted that his trial counsel was constitutionally inadequate and ineffective under the state and federal constitutions. See *730Padilla v. Kentucky , 559 U.S. 356, 369, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010) (requiring counsel to inform a criminal defendant of clear immigration consequences of a plea and, where consequences are not clear, to advise that plea may carry a risk of adverse immigration consequences).

The petition was filed outside the two-year limitations period. But petitioner alleged that his petition fell within the escape clause because he could not reasonably have known of his grounds for post-conviction relief within the limitations period. He based that allegation on the fact that neither trial counsel nor the sentencing court gave him any indication that his plea could carry immigration consequences, even when petitioner stated, on the record, that he was pleading guilty in part because he wished to travel and become a United States citizen. Petitioner alleged that he learned of counsel's inadequacy only when he was placed in deportation proceedings, after the statute of limitations had run.

The post-conviction court dismissed the petition as time-barred under ORS 138.510(3). The Court of Appeals affirmed, based on the principle that "persons are assumed to know laws that are publicly available and relevant to them," including relevant immigration law. Gutale v. State of Oregon , 285 Or. App. 39, 42, 395 P.3d 942 (2017) (citing **505Bartzv. State of Oregon , 314 Or. 353, 839 P.2d 217 (1992) ; Benitez-Chacon v. State of Oregon , 178 Or. App. 352, 37 P.3d 1035 (2001) ). We allowed review to determine the proper meaning and scope of the escape clause. For the reasons set out below, we reverse the decisions of the post-conviction court and the Court of Appeals.

I. BACKGROUND

We take the historical facts from the allegations in petitioner's pleadings and attachments, including petitioner's response to the state's motion to dismiss. See Verduzco v. State of Oregon , 357 Or. 553, 555 n. 1, 355 P.3d 902 (2015) (taking undisputed facts from petitioner's pleadings and attachments). Petitioner is a refugee from Somalia who arrived in the United States in 2003, when he was in his early teens. In April 2010, at the age of 20, petitioner was charged with various crimes after he was discovered in a car having sex with a 16-year-old girl. Petitioner pleaded guilty to one count of sex abuse in the third degree, a class A misdemeanor, and the remaining charges were dismissed.

At the sentencing hearing that followed, petitioner stated that he was pleading guilty in part because he "really wan[ted to] travel" and to obtain his United States citizenship. The court sentenced petitioner to two years of probation and seven days in custody with credit for time served. The court ordered petitioner to register as a sex offender, but told him that if he successfully completed probation, it would "remove that requirement."

Petitioner's trial counsel was required under Padilla to provide petitioner with information regarding the potential immigration consequences of his plea. Padilla was decided by the United States Supreme Court a couple of months before petitioner's sentencing. And, under ORS 135.385(2)(d), trial courts are required to inform noncitizen defendants who plead guilty that "conviction of a crime may result *** in deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States or denial of naturalization." Despite petitioner's statement at sentencing that he was pleading guilty so that he could travel and become a United States citizen, neither trial counsel nor the court gave petitioner any indication that his plea subjected him to immigration **506consequences. Petitioner's judgment of conviction was entered on June 3, 2010.

Just over two years later, on June 4, 2012, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained petitioner. In March 2013, petitioner filed for post-conviction relief, alleging that his trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to advise him of the immigration consequences of his plea. In an affidavit attached to his petition for post-conviction relief, he stated that his trial counsel had never discussed with him the immigration consequences of his guilty plea. At the time of his plea, petitioner was "unaware that [he] could be deported as a result of [his] sex abuse conviction." He remained "unaware that [he] could be deported until [he] was taken into ICE custody on June 4, 2012." He added, "I certainly would have filed within the two-year statute of limitations had I *731been informed that I could be deported as a result of my sex abuse conviction."

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Bluebook (online)
435 P.3d 728, 364 Or. 502, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gutale-v-state-or-2019.