Turner v. Commissioner of Correction

201 Conn. App. 196
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 3, 2020
DocketAC42437
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 201 Conn. App. 196 (Turner v. Commissioner of Correction) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turner v. Commissioner of Correction, 201 Conn. App. 196 (Colo. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.

The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** COREY TURNER v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION (AC 42437) Lavine, Moll and Suarez, Js.

Syllabus

The petitioner, who previously had been convicted of the crimes of murder and assault in the first degree in connection with the shooting death of the victim, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, inter alia, that the respondent Commissioner of Correction violated his due process rights by eliciting perjured testimony from his criminal trial counsel at his first habeas trial. The habeas court rendered judgment dismissing in part and denying in part the habeas petition. Thereafter, the habeas court denied his petition for certification to appeal, and the petitioner appealed to this court. Subsequently, the petitioner filed a motion to open the judgment and to disqualify the judicial authority, which the court denied and the petitioner amended his appeal. Held: 1. The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petition for certification to appeal; the habeas court reasonably determined that the petitioner’s claims were frivolous and not debatable among jurists of reason. 2. The habeas court properly dismissed as nonjusticiable that count of the petition that alleged that the petitioner’s due process rights had been violated due to newly discovered evidence that the respondent’s counsel elicited perjured testimony from his criminal trial counsel at his first habeas trial: the court lacked authority to open the judgment rendered in the first habeas action and, therefore, the court could provide no practical relief to the petitioner on his claim, rendering the case moot; moreover, the petitioner’s allegations regarding his criminal trial coun- sel’s testimony at the first habeas trial did not constitute a constitutional violation of the petitioner’s liberty and, therefore, the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction. 3. The habeas court did not improperly deny those counts of the petitioner’s petition alleging suppression of and failure to preserve evidence of K- 9 tracking of the alleged perpetrator during the police investigation of the murder: the court concluded that evidence of K-9 tracking had not been proven to exist, and the petitioner failed to demonstrate that there was evidence of the K-9 track that the state suppressed or the police failed to preserve; moreover, the court’s decision was predicated in part on its determination that the testimony of a patrol sergeant, that if he had performed a K-9 track, he would have written a report, and that he could not recall using a K-9, was credible, and it is not the role of appellate courts to second-guess credibility determinations. 4. This court declined to review the petitioner’s claim that the habeas court abused its discretion in denying his postjudgment motion to open the judgment and disqualify the judicial authority because the record was inadequate; the petitioner failed to follow the procedures required for disqualification, as the petitioner’s affidavit and good faith certificate failed to comport with legal standards, the motion was not timely filed, there was no opportunity for a hearing to be held on the motion to disqualify to create a factual record for review and the petitioner failed to demonstrate good cause for failing to comply with the rules of practice. Argued September 14—officially released November 3, 2020

Procedural History

Amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Tolland and tried to the court, Westbrook, J.; judgment dismissing the petition in part and denying the petition in part; thereafter, the court denied the petition for certification to appeal, and the plaintiff appealed to this court; subsequently, the court, Westbrook, J., denied the petitioner’s motion to open the judgment and to disqualify the judicial authority, and the petitioner filed an amended appeal. Appeal dismissed. Corey Turner, self-represented, the appellant (peti- tioner). Melissa L. Streeto, senior assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, former state’s attorney, and JoAnne Sulik, senior assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (respondent). Opinion

LAVINE, J. The self-represented petitioner, Corey Turner, appeals from the judgment of the habeas court, Westbrook, J., denying his petition for certification to appeal from the court’s judgment dismissing in part and denying in part his second amended fifth petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, the petitioner claims that the habeas court abused its discretion by (1) deny- ing his petition for certification to appeal, (2) dismissing his claim that he was deprived of a fair trial during his first habeas trial, (3) denying his claims that the prosecuting authority violated his state and federal con- stitutional rights by failing (a) to disclose exculpatory evidence and (b) to preserve the exculpatory evidence, and (4) denying his motion to open the judgment and disqualify the judicial authority. We dismiss the appeal. The following procedural summary provides context for the petitioner’s present appeal. In 1997, the jury found the petitioner guilty of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a and assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-59 for fatally shooting Richard Woods in Hartford in 1995. See State v. Turner, 252 Conn. 714, 716–17, 751 A.2d 372 (2000).1 The trial court, Koletsky, J., sentenced the petitioner to a total effective term of sixty years of incarceration. Turner v. Commissioner of Correction, 86 Conn. App. 341, 342, 861 A.2d 522 (2004), cert. denied, 272 Conn. 914, 866 A.2d 1286 (2005). Our Supreme Court upheld the petitioner’s conviction on direct appeal. State v. Turner, supra, 750. The petitioner subsequently filed a succession of state and federal petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, as well as, a writ of error coram nobis, motions to open and set aside judgments, and a statu- tory petition for a new trial.2 None of the petitioner’s myriad efforts for postconviction relief has been suc- cessful. The issues in the present appeal are related to the denials of the petitioner’s first petition for a writ of habeas corpus and his motion to open the first habeas court judgment. The relevant procedural history was summarized comprehensively by this court in Turner v. Commissioner of Correction, 163 Conn. App. 556, 134 A.3d 1253, cert. denied, 323 Conn.

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Bluebook (online)
201 Conn. App. 196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-commissioner-of-correction-connappct-2020.