McDonough v. State

707 N.W.2d 384, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 2, 2006 WL 20603
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 5, 2006
DocketA05-500
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 707 N.W.2d 384 (McDonough 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
McDonough v. State, 707 N.W.2d 384, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 2, 2006 WL 20603 (Mich. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H„ Justice.

Petitioner William J. McDonough appeals from a summary denial of his third petition for postconviction relief alleging seven claims of error. We affirm the post-conviction court’s denial of McDonough’s petition.

On April 17, 2000, petitioner William McDonough was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and a consecutive 180-month sentence for the attempt. Our opinion issued in response to McDonough’s direct appeal provides a full statement of the facts in this case. State v. McDonough, 631 N.W.2d 373, 379-82 (Minn.2001) (McDonough I).. In his direct appeal, McDon-ough raised eight claims of error, but we affirmed his conviction. Id. at 379.

McDonough made eight additional claims of error in his first postconviction petition for relief, making the following arguments: (1) he was arrested without probable cause; (2) the search warrant was deficient; (3) his Miranda rights were violated; (4) the state committed prosecu-torial misconduct; (5) the grand jury lacked jurisdiction; (6) his right to a speedy trial was violated; (7) he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel; and (8) he received ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The first postconviction court rejected all of McDonough’s claims, determining that he had raised four of the claims in his direct appeal, that he should have known of three of the claims at the time of his direct appeal, and that he failed to explain the basis for his claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. Mc-Donough did not appeal the denial of this petition. See McDonough v. State, 675 N.W.2d 53, 55 (Minn.2004) (McDonough II).

McDonough then filed a second petition for postconviction relief, raising three claims. The postconviction court denied relief, and McDonough appealed to this court. On the postconviction appeal, we concluded that in his direct appeal we had rejected two claims that were raised in this petition — that the evidence was insufficient and that his indictment was improper. Id. at 55-56. We also concluded that McDon-ough did not allege facts that if proved would have entitled him to relief on his third claim, ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. Id. at 56. We therefore affirmed the second postconviction court’s denial of relief. Id. at 57.

In this, his third petition for postconviction relief, McDonough makes the following arguments: (1) the district court erred by allowing false and misleading statements to be made at trial; (2) the state engaged in prosecutorial misconduct when it used false or perjured testimony; (3) the grand jury lacked jurisdiction to issue the indictment; (4) the district court erred in providing jury instructions on the offenses; (5) the district court erred by failing to disclose that a jury question had been asked and answered; (6) he was denied his right to a speedy trial; and (7) he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. In *387 denying this third petition for relief, the postconviction court determined that Mc-Donough either had already raised the claims in a previous proceeding or should have known of the claims when he made his direct appeal. McDonough now appeals all of the issues raised in his third postconviction petition.

A defendant is permitted to seek posteonviction relief “to vacate and set aside the judgment * * * or grant a new trial * * * or make other disposition as may be appropriate.” Minn.Stat. § 590.01, subd. 1 (2004) (amended 2005). “Review of a postconviction proceeding is limited to determining “whether there is sufficient evidence to sustain the postconviction court’s findings, and a postconviction court’s decision will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion.’ ” Zenanko v. State, 688 N.W.2d 861, 864 (Minn.2004) (quoting Sanders v. State, 628 N.W.2d 597, 600 (Minn.2001)). A postconviction court “may summarily deny a petition when the issues raised in it have previously been decided by the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court in the same case.” Minn.Stat. § 590.04, subd. 3 (2004). “Additionally, once a direct appeal has been taken ‘all matters raised' therein, and all claims known but not raised, will not be considered upon a subsequent petition for post-conviction relief.’ ” McDonough II, 675 N.W.2d at 55 (quoting State v. Knaffla, 309 Minn. 246, 252, 243 N.W.2d 737, 741 (1976)) (Knaffla rule).

There are two exceptions to the Knaffla rule: (1) if a novel legal issue is presented, or (2) if the interests of justice require review. The second exception may be applied if fairness requires it and the petitioner did not “deliberately and inexcusably” fail to raise the issue on direct appeal.

Taylor v. State, 691 N.W.2d 78, 79 (Minn.2005) (citations omitted).

We have previously rejected, in somewhat different form, three of the claims that McDonough raises in his current postconviction appeal. His first two claims are that the district court erred in allowing, and the state committed misconduct in eliciting, the testimony of two officers regarding their understanding of his alibi witness’s testimony. Both of these claims are recharacterizations of his previously rejected claims that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction. See McDonough I, 631 N.W.2d at 389-90 (concluding that McDonough’s “alibi witness’ testimony was discredited and contradicted by a significant amount of other evidence”); see also McDonough II, 675 N.W.2d at 55-56 (holding that McDon-ough’s claim of innocence “had previously been decided by this court in the same case”). McDonough’s third claim is that we must dismiss his indictment because the grand jury lacked both subject matter and personal jurisdiction over him. Although it is difficult to determine the exact basis for this third claim, it appears that McDonough is merely recharacterizing his previously rejected claim that exculpatory evidence was withheld from the grand jury. See McDonough I, 631 N.W.2d at 386-87 (concluding “that the district court did not err in denying McDonough’s motion to dismiss the indictment”).

Minnesota Statutes § 590.04, subd. 3, allows a postconviction court to “summarily deny a petition when the issues raised in it have previously been decided by the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court in the same case.” We have previously implicitly determined that there was no error when the two officers testified about their discussions with McDonough’s alibi witness. See McDonough I, 631 N.W.2d at 381, 386-87, 390-91. Thus, the district court could not have erred in allowing the officers to testify nor could the prosecutor *388

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Bluebook (online)
707 N.W.2d 384, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 2, 2006 WL 20603, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonough-v-state-minn-2006.