Court Dismisses Capital Post-Conviction Appeal

The Court dismissed capital defendant Gene Stuart's appeal today. The district court had found that Stuart's successive petition was untimely under I.C. 19-2719 and dismissed.

On appeal, the state moved to dismiss the case under Idaho Code § 19-2719(5) which provides:

"If the defendant fails to apply for relief as provided in this section and within the time limits specified, he shall be deemed to have waived such claims for relief as were known, or reasonably should have been known. The courts of Idaho shall have no power to consider any such claims for relief as have been so waived or grant any such relief." The Court has added a "reasonable time" requirement to the statute, i.e., "[c]laims not known or which could not have reasonably been known within 42 days of judgment must be asserted within a reasonable time after they are known or reasonably could have been known."

Stuart responded by arguing that I.C. 19-2719 did not retroactively apply to his case and was an ex post facto law. He also made a number of other state and federal constitutional challenges to the statute. The Court rejected all of those arguments and dismissed the appeal.

Stuart v. State, http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/Stuart34200.pdf