Title: Laney v. State

State: tennessee

Issuer: Tennessee Supreme Court

Document:

826 S.W.2d 117 (1992) Thomas Gerald LANEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Tennessee, Appellee. Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville. February 18, 1992. Nicholas D. Bunstine, Knoxville, for appellant. James W. Milam, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles W. Burson, Atty. Gen. & Reporter, Nashville, for appellee. REID, Chief Justice. This case presents an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirming the dismissal of a petition for post-conviction relief by the trial court on the ground that when the petition in this case was heard a previously filed petition for post-conviction relief was pending in the Court of Criminal Appeals. A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals found that the trial court "had no jurisdiction to consider" the petition. Judge Joe B. Jones, dissenting, argued that the trial court erred in dismissing the petition. The well-reasoned dissent by Judge Jones resolves the issue, which this Court has not considered previously, in conformity with the provisions and purpose of the Post-conviction Procedure Act. That portion of Judge Jones' opinion relating to this issue is adopted as the opinion of the Court. The adopted portion, footnotes omitted, reads as follows: [749 S.W.2d at 733-35.] In Carter v. State, 802 S.W.2d 223 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1990), the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the summary dismissal of a second post-conviction petition while the first petition was pending on the grounds that the court "lack[ed] jurisdiction." 802 S.W.2d at 224. The opinion shows that both petitions were filed in the same court, but it does not disclose the grounds asserted in either petition, only that "all grounds alleged [in the second petition] had been previously litigated." Under those circumstances the dismissal was appropriate, though not for the reasons stated in the opinion. The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to the trial court. DROWOTA, O'BRIEN, DAUGHTREY, and ANDERSON, JJ., concur.