Carlson v. North Dakota

Sergei Carlson appealed a district court order summarily dismissing his post-conviction relief application. In July 2007, law enforcement officers responded to a report of a non-responsive female. When they arrived, officers found W.P.C., a 16-year-old girl, lying in bed not breathing. W.P.C. was pronounced dead. Carlson, the victim's adoptive brother, and P.R., the victim's mother, were the only other people present in the home at the time of W.P.C.'s death. An autopsy of W.P.C. indicated the cause of death was suffocation and/or asphyxiation. Carlson told the officers during an interview that he strangled W.P.C. with his hands and placed pillows over her face to muffle the sound. Carlson then indicated he had sexual contact with W.P.C. after strangling/suffocating her. In September 2008, Carlson pled guilty to murder and performing a deviant sexual act. Carlson was 15 years old at the time and was initially charged in juvenile court before the case was transferred to adult court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole in October 2008. Carlson filed a post-conviction relief application in October 2016. The district court appointed Carlson counsel at his request. The State answered Carlson's pro se application for post-conviction relief in November 2016. The State subsequently moved for summary disposition, specifically asserting the application should be barred by the two-year statute of limitations under N.D.C.C. 29-32.1-01. Carlson responded to the motion through his counsel and the parties stipulated that the court could address the matter of timeliness of Carlson's application based on the written pleadings before the court. The court dismissed Carlson's application as untimely in June 2017, because it did not meet an exception to the two-year statute of limitations. Carlson filed a notice of appeal in July 2017. In this matter before the North Dakota Supreme Court, Carlson argued the district court erred in summarily dismissing his post-conviction relief application based on the statute of limitations. The Supreme Court concluded the district court did not err by summarily dismissing Carlson's post-conviction relief application. View "Carlson v. North Dakota" on Justia Law