Opinion
No. E2000-00008-CCA-R3-PC
Decided July 6, 2000
Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Knox County, No. 69610, Richard R. Baumgartner, Judge.
REVERSED.
Thomas J. McKee, Pro Se.
Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General, R. Stephen Jobe, Assistant Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, Randall E. Nichols, District Attorney General, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.
Witt, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Hayes, J., and Ogle, J., joined.
JUDGMENT
Came the defendant, Thomas J. McKee, pro se, and the state, by the Attorney General, and this cause was heard on the record on appeal from the Criminal Court of Knox County; and upon consideration thereof, this court is of the opinion that there is reversible error in the judgment of the trial court.
It is, therefore, ordered and adjudged that the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the case is remanded to the Criminal Court of Knox County for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Costs of the appeal are taxed to the State of Tennessee.
OPINION
The petitioner, Thomas J. McKee, appeals the Knox County Criminal Court's dismissal of his petition for post- conviction relief. He argues, and the state agrees, that the statute of limitations set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-30-202(a) was erroneously applied to his case. Because we conclude that both parties are correct, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the case is remanded to the trial court for further post-conviction proceedings.
The trial court convicted the defendant of first degree murder on September 7, 1995. He appealed his conviction to this court, which affirmed the conviction on April 28, 1998. See State v. Thomas J. McKee, No. 03C01-9603-CR-00092 (Tenn.Crim.App., Knoxville, Apr. 28, 1998). The petitioner applied to the supreme court for permission to appeal, but by order entered December 28, 1998, the supreme court denied the application.
The petitioner filed his post-conviction petition in the trial court on December 9, 1999. That court determined that the petition was barred by the statute of limitations set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-30-202(a) because more than one year had elapsed between the September 7, 1995 date of the conviction and the December 9, 1999 filing of the petition for post-conviction relief. On appeal, the defendant challenges this action, arguing that Code section 40-30-202(a) provides for the one-year statute of limitations to run from the "date of the final action of the highest state appellate court to which an appeal is taken or, if no appeal is taken, within one (1) year of the date on which the judgment became final." Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-30-202(a) (1997). The state agrees that the defendant is correct.
Post-conviction petitions must be filed within one year of the date of the "final action of the highest state appellate court to which an appeal is taken." Id. In the present case, the highest state appellate court involved is our supreme court, and its final action was taken on December 28, 1998. Accordingly, the present petition, which was filed on December 9, 1999, was timely.
The order of the trial court is reversed, and the cause is remanded to the trial court for further post- conviction proceedings.