Title: In re Hanson

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

IN_RE_HANSON.91-066; 160 Vt. 111; 623 A.2d 466



[Filed 26-Feb-1993]

 NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P.
 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
 Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
 Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in
 order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                 No. 91-066


 In re Kent Hanson                            Supreme Court

                                              On Appeal from
                                              Franklin Superior Court

                                              November Term, 1993


 John P. Meaker, J.

 Todd Taylor and Nancy M. Parmalee, Law Clerk (On the Brief), Burlington, for
    petitioner-appellant

 Howard E. Van Benthuysen, Franklin County State's Attorney, St. Albans, for
    respondent-appellee




 PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.



      MORSE, J.   In 1987, the Chittenden District Court convicted petitioner
 of murder, and he collaterally attacked the conviction seeking post-
 conviction relief (PCR) in Franklin Superior Court.  Petitioner claimed that
 the district court erred in failing to conduct a competency hearing before
 accepting his change of plea from not guilty of first-degree murder to
 guilty of second-degree murder and that he received ineffective assistance
 of counsel.  We affirm.
      In 1963, when petitioner was twenty years old, a ruptured aneurysm in
 his brain caused him to suffer frontal lobe damage and post-traumatic grand
 mal seizures.  In 1964, following a finding of insanity in a murder case,
 petitioner was committed to Vermont State Hospital, and he returned to that
 institution frequently between 1970 and 1980.  In 1965, the Windham Probate
 Court issued a letter of guardianship to petitioner's stepfather on grounds
 that petitioner was mentally incapable of caring for himself and his
 property.
      At the arraignment in Franklin District Court, in light of petitioner's
 significant history of mental problems, the State requested, and the court
 ordered, a psychiatric examination under 13 V.S.A. {{ 4814, 4817(b).  Dr.
 John Ives, a psychiatrist appointed by the court, evaluated petitioner and
 found him competent to stand trial.  However, Dr. Ives did not report to the
 court his opinion and the bases for it.
      Later, the murder case was moved to Chittenden District Court after
 petitioner had moved for a change in venue.  Petitioner pled guilty in that
 court after an examination by the court under V.R.Cr.P. 11(c)(advice to
 defendant before acceptance of plea).  The court, however, did not conduct
 an evidentiary hearing on the question of petitioner's competency to change
 his plea.  He was sentenced to the bargained-for sentence of 20-30 years to
 serve.
      Initially, petitioner contends that the Franklin Superior Court lacked
 subject-matter jurisdiction over the PCR petition, because petitioner was
 convicted and sentenced in Chittenden County.  An inmate "may at any time
 move the [superior] court of the county where the sentence was imposed to
 vacate, set aside or correct the sentence." 13 V.S.A. { 7131 (emphasis
 added).  Section 7131, however, does not concern subject-matter
 jurisdiction of the court in which the PCR petition is heard.  The statute
 indicating the county where the PCR should be brought was enacted "to
 simplify the often cumbersome procedures associated with habeas corpus."  In
 re Stewart, 140 Vt. 351, 356,