Johnson v. State

916 N.W.2d 674
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 22, 2018
DocketA17-0842; A17-0883
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 916 N.W.2d 674 (Johnson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. State, 916 N.W.2d 674 (Mich. 2018).

Opinion

GILDEA, Chief Justice.

In this case we are asked to determine whether the Supreme Court's decision in Birchfield v. North Dakota , 579 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 2160, 195 L.Ed.2d 560 (2016), and our decisions in State v. Trahan , 886 N.W.2d 216 (Minn. 2016), and State v. Thompson , 886 N.W.2d 224 (Minn. 2016), announced a new rule of constitutional law that applies retroactively to cases on collateral review. The district courts and the court of appeals concluded that the rule was procedural and not retroactive. Because we conclude that the rule is substantive and retroactive, we reverse.

FACTS

This consolidated appeal arises from two separate traffic stops. The first stop occurred in 2009, when St. Anthony police stopped appellant Mark Jerome Johnson on suspicion of driving while impaired (DWI). After Johnson admitted that he had been drinking and showed signs of impairment, police arrested him. Police read Johnson the Minnesota Implied Consent Advisory and asked him whether he would take a blood or a urine test. Johnson refused. Respondent the State of Minnesota charged Johnson with first-degree test refusal, Minn. Stat. §§ 169A.20, subd. 2 (2016), 169A.24 (2010).1 Johnson pleaded guilty on April 29, 2010 and was sentenced to a 48-month prison term, stayed for 7 years. Johnson did not file a direct appeal.

*678The second stop occurred in 2014, while Johnson was on probation for his 2010 test-refusal conviction. Police stopped Johnson for using his turn signal improperly. Johnson admitted that he had been drinking, and he failed field sobriety tests. Police then arrested Johnson for DWI and read him the Minnesota Implied Consent Advisory. Johnson said that he wanted to contact an attorney. After affording Johnson time to call an attorney, police asked if he was willing to consent to a chemical test for the presence of alcohol. Johnson indicated that he had been advised by his attorney to refuse unless the officer had a warrant. Police interpreted this as a refusal, and the State charged Johnson with first-degree test refusal, Minn. Stat. §§ 169A.20, subd. 2 (2016), 169A.24 (2012). Johnson pleaded guilty on April 23, 2015 and was sentenced to a 51-month prison term and a mandatory 5-year period of conditional release. Johnson did not file a direct appeal.

In December 2016, Johnson filed a consolidated petition for postconviction relief challenging his 2010 and 2015 convictions for test refusal. He argued that the Supreme Court's decision in Birchfield v. North Dakota , 579 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 2160, 195 L.Ed.2d 560 (2016), and our decisions in State v. Trahan , 886 N.W.2d 216 (Minn. 2016), and State v. Thompson , 886 N.W.2d 224 (Minn. 2016), announced a new, substantive rule of federal constitutional criminal law that was retroactively applicable to his convictions on collateral review.2 Under that rule, Johnson maintained that his convictions for refusing to submit to warrantless blood and urine tests violated the constitution and must be vacated.

The district court considered the petition separately for each of Johnson's prior two convictions, with one judge hearing the petition for the 2010 test-refusal conviction, and a different judge hearing the petition for the 2015 test-refusal conviction. Each district court concluded that the Birchfield rule was procedural and did not apply retroactively to Johnson's conviction. Alternatively, each concluded that by pleading guilty, Johnson waived the right to challenge his conviction. Both courts summarily denied Johnson's petition.

Johnson appealed both district court decisions, and the court of appeals consolidated the appeals. The court of appeals affirmed, concluding that the Birchfield rule did not apply retroactively to Johnson's final convictions because the rule was procedural in nature, and accordingly, the district courts did not abuse their discretion by denying Johnson's postconviction petitions. Johnson v. State , 906 N.W.2d 861, 867 (Minn. App. 2018). We granted Johnson's petition for review.

ANALYSIS

This case comes to us on appeal from decisions on Johnson's postconviction petition. We review the denial of a petition for postconviction relief for an abuse of discretion. Dikken v. State , 896 N.W.2d 873, 876 (Minn. 2017). We will reverse a postconviction court if the court " 'exercised its discretion in an arbitrary or capricious manner, based its ruling on an erroneous view of the law, or made clearly erroneous factual findings.' " Brown v. State , 863 N.W.2d 781, 786 (Minn. 2015) (quoting Reed v. State , 793 N.W.2d 725, 729 (Minn. 2010) ).

On appeal, Johnson argues that the Birchfield rule applies retroactively. The *679State contends that, because Johnson pleaded guilty, he waived his right to assert that the Birchfield rule applies retroactively. If we reach the question of whether the Birchfield rule applies retroactively, the State urges us to affirm. Specifically, the State contends that the rule is procedural and therefore inapplicable to cases on collateral review.

Before addressing the parties' arguments and to provide context for our analysis, we turn first to a discussion of the Birchfield rule. In Birchfield v. North Dakota , the Supreme Court consolidated three cases, each of which concerned whether criminal test-refusal laws violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches. 579 U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 2160, 2170-72, 195 L.Ed.2d 560 (2016). Although the cases shared the same general issue, two of them were based on the refusal of a blood test, and the other on the refusal of a breath test.

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Bluebook (online)
916 N.W.2d 674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-state-minn-2018.