This opinion will be unpublished and

may not be cited except as provided by

Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2012).

STATE OF MINNESOTA

IN COURT OF APPEALS

A14-0762

Terence Jerome Wilson, petitioner,

Appellant,

vs.

State of Minnesota,

Respondent.

Filed December 22, 2014

Affirmed

Connolly, Judge

Hennepin County District Court

File No. 27-CR-99-005185

Terence Jerome Wilson, Bayport, Minnesota (pro se appellant)

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and

Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Jean E. Burdorf, Assistant County 

Attorney, Minneapolis, Minnesota (for respondent)

Considered and decided by Connolly, Presiding Judge; Bjorkman, Judge; and 

Toussaint, Judge.



 

 

 Retired judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, serving by appointment pursuant to 

Minn. Const. art. VI, § 10.
2

U N P U B L I S H E D O P I N I O N

CONNOLLY, Judge

Appellant argues that the district court erred when it (1) characterized his motion 

for correction of sentence as a postconviction appeal, (2) misinterpreted and misapplied 

the sentencing guidelines, and (3) abused its discretion by giving appellant an upwarddurational departure. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant shot and killed his pregnant girlfriend on the evening of December 25, 

1998 in front of his then three-year-old daughter. Appellant pleaded guilty to amended 

charges of second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree murder of an unborn 

child. In November 1999, the district court sentenced appellant to a total of 402 months 

in prison, which included an upward-durational departure of 102 months due to the 

presence of aggravating factors. Under the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines, the murder 

counts had a severity level of nine and called for a sentence of 150 months on each count 

if served consecutively. The aggravating factors taken into account by the court in 

determining the upward departure of 102 months were: (1) the presence of a child; (2) the 

appellant fled the scene and failed to provide medical aid; and (3) the appellant invaded 

the victim’s zone of privacy.

Appellant never filed a direct appeal from his convictions but has filed seven 

petitions for postconviction relief. The district court has summarily denied each petition 
3

and the appellant has filed appeals with this court from six of the decisions. This court 

has affirmed the district court every time.

1

On December 19, 2013, appellant filed this eighth petition in Hennepin County 

District Court. On March 26, 2014, the district court issued an order denying appellant’s 

petition in its entirety, holding that the issues raised in appellant’s petition were subject to 

a two-year statute of limitations and had been previously decided by the court of appeals.

D E C I S I O N

I. The District Court Did Not Err in Characterizing Appellant’s Petition Under 

Minn. Stat. § 590.01.

Appellant contends that the district court mischaracterized his Minn. R. Crim. P. 

27.03, subd. 9 motion as a petition for postconviction relief under Minn. Stat. § 590.01

(2012). We disagree. A postconviction petition brought under Minn. Stat. § 590.01 may 

not be filed more than two years after the later of: (1) “the entry of judgment of 

conviction or sentence if no direct appeal is filed” or (2) “an appellate court’s disposition 

of a petitioner’s direct appeal.” Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4(a)(1), (2). Under Minn. R. 

Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9, “[t]he court may at any time correct a sentence not authorized by 

law.” This court has held that a motion to correct a sentence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 

27.03 is not subject to a two-year time bar. See Vazquez v. State, 822 N.W.2d 313, 318 

(Minn. App. 2012). 

 

1 Wilson v. State, No. A22-2269 (Minn. App. June 17, 2013) (order op.); Wilson v. State, 

No. A11-0193 (Minn. App. Sept. 7, 2011) (order op.); Wilson v. State, No. A09-1422, 

(Minn. App. Feb. 17, 2010) (order op.); Wilson v. State, No. A06-1675 (Minn. App. 

Aug. 22, 2007) (order op.), review denied (Minn. Nov. 13, 2007); Wilson v. State, No. 

A04-0575 (Minn. App. Nov. 9, 2004), review denied (Minn. Jan. 20, 2005); Wilson v. 

State, No. C4-02-1029 (Minn. App. Jan. 28, 2003), review denied (Minn. Apr. 15, 2003).
4

“When reviewing a postconviction court’s decision, we examine only whether the 

postconviction court’s findings are supported by sufficient evidence. We will reverse a 

decision of the postconviction court only if that court abused its discretion.” Lussier v. 

State, 821 N.W.2d 581, 588 (Minn. 2012) (quotation omitted). On appeal from the 

district court’s denial of a motion to correct a sentence brought under Minn. R. Crim. P. 

27.03, subd. 9, this court will not reevaluate a sentence unless the district court abused its 

discretion or the original sentence was unauthorized by law. Anderson v. State, 794 

N.W.2d 137, 139 (Minn. App. 2011). Therefore, regardless of whether this court is 

reviewing a district court’s denial of a Minn. Stat. § 590.01 postconviction petition or a 

Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9 denial of a motion to correct a sentence, our standard of 

review is the same.

Appellant “may not avoid the requirements of the postconviction act by simply 

labeling a challenge as a motion to correct [his] sentence under rule 27.03, subdivision

9.” Washington v. State, 845 N.W.2d 205, 212 (Minn. App. 2014); see also Johnson v. 

State, 801 N.W.2d 173, 176 (Minn. 2011) (holding that where a petitioner has not argued 

that a petition for postconviction relief would be inadequate or ineffective, the exclusive 

remedy for a review of the claims is a proceeding for postconviction relief and not in a 

proceeding to correct a sentence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9). In order to 

make a motion to correct a sentence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9, appellant 

must assert that his sentence is “unauthorized by law in the sense that the sentence is 

contrary to an applicable statute or other applicable law.” Washington, 845 N.W.2d at 
5

213 (quotation omitted).2 If appellant wishes to challenge his sentence for any other 

reason, he must do so under the postconviction relief statute. Id. at 214; Minn. Stat. 

§ 590.01, subd. 2 (“This remedy takes the place of any other common law, statutory or 

other remedies which may have been available for challenging the validity of a 

conviction, sentence, or other disposition and must be used exclusively in place of them 

unless it is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of the conviction, sentence or 

other disposition.”).

Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, subd. 9, does not apply when a party is challenging a 

sentence on the ground that the facts were inaccurate or the court “erred by selecting one 

among two or more sentences that are authorized by law.” Washington, 845 N.W.2d at 

213. This court has consistently held that a challenge to the district court’s discretion to 

choose among permissible sentences is not the kind of claim Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.03, 

subd. 9, was designed to address. Id. at 214-15; State v. Borrego, 661 N.W.2d 663, 666-

67 (Minn. App. 2003). In appellant’s case, imposing both consecutive sentences and the 

102-month upward departure for aggravating factors were authorized by the sentencing 

guidelines as permissive, therefore, by definition, giving the district court discretion in 

choosing between two or more sentences authorized by law. Minn. Sent. Guidelines II.D, 

II.F (1998). Moreover, in 2007, this court explicitly found that the sentence imposed was 

 

2 Appellant correctly notes that Johnson v. State, 801 N.W.2d 173 is not dispositive 

because the appellant in Johnson had already received sentencing relief. Washington is 

more analogous to this case because, in Washington, the appellant was seeking sentence 

relief under Minn. R. Crim. P. 27.09, subd. 9, and yet the court held that the motion was 

time barred under Minn. Stat. § 590.01. See Washington, 845 N.W.2d at 215.
6

legal, or, in other words, not an abuse of discretion or “unauthorized by law.” Wilson v. 

State, No. A06-1675 (Minn. App. Aug. 22, 2007) (order op.), review denied (Minn. Nov. 

13, 2007). 

Because the issues raised by appellant before this court challenge the use of the 

district court’s discretion to choose between two or more authorized sentences under the

sentencing guidelines, and further because this court determined the sentences to be legal, 

it is clear that the sentences imposed by the sentencing court were not “unauthorized by 

law.” As a result appellant improperly challenged his sentence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 

27.03, subd. 9. We conclude that the district court did not err in characterizing 

appellant’s petition as a postconviction petition under Minn. Stat. § 590.01.

II. Appellant’s Claims Are Barred by the Two-Year Statute of Limitations.

Because the correct vehicle for the postconviction relief appellant seeks is Minn. 

Stat. § 590.01, the two-year statute of limitations is applicable. The two-year time bar

was enacted on August 1, 2005, and allowed a two-year grace period for those petitioners 

whose convictions became final before that date to seek postconviction relief. 2005 

Minn. Laws, ch. 136, art. 14, § 13, at 1097-98 (effective Aug. 1, 2005). Appellant was 

convicted in 1999 and did not file a direct appeal. Appellant’s conviction became final 

prior to 2005 and thus he was given the two-year grace period—until July 31, 2007—to 

file his postconviction petition. Id. Appellant filed this eighth petition for postconviction 

relief on December 19, 2013, over six years after the two-year grace period ended. 

Therefore, appellant’s claims are untimely under Minn. Stat. § 590.01. 
7

III. Appellant’s Claims Are Precluded by the Knaffla Rule.

Appellant’s claims are also precluded by the Knaffla rule. State v. Knaffla, 309 

Minn. 246, 243 N.W.2d 737 (1976). Review of a denial of postconviction relief based on 

the Knaffla procedural bar is for an abuse of discretion. Quick v. State, 692 N.W.2d 438, 

439 (Minn. 2005). The Knaffla rule states: “where direct appeal has once been taken, all 

matters raised therein, or all claims known but not raised will not be considered upon a 

subsequent petition for postconviction relief.” Knaffla, 309 Minn. at 252, 243 N.W.2d at 

738. Even when an appellant has not taken a direct appeal, claims “which appellant 

raised or knew of and could have raised in earlier review” will not be considered. Wayne 

v. State, 601 N.W.2d 440, 441 (Minn. 1999) (holding that claims which could have been

raised in previous postconviction petitions were barred under the Knaffla rule despite the 

petitioner having never filed a direct appeal).

Appellant argues: (1) that the district court misapplied the sentencing guidelines in 

imposing both a consecutive sentence and an upward-durational departure; and (2) that 

the district court abused its discretion by giving appellant an upward-durational departure 

using improper and inadequate factors. This court previously discussed the sentencing

court’s application of the sentencing guidelines to this case and whether the district court 

abused its discretion in appellant’s 2007 appeal for correction of sentence. Wilson v. 

State, No. A06-1675 (Minn. App. Aug. 22, 2007) (order op.), review denied (Minn. 

Nov. 13, 2007).
8

The court found:

The sentences imposed were authorized by the sentencing 

guidelines as permissive consecutive sentences involving 

multiple victims, and the 102-month upward departure for 

aggravating factors placed on the record, as well as the 402-

month aggregate total sentence, [were] well within the 

statutory maximum of 40 years for each second-degree 

murder count. Wilson’s sentences were legal.

Id. (citation omitted).

Thus, having already received review on these issues by a postconviction court, 

appellant is barred from raising all matters previously raised. As all matters raised in 

appellant’s current petition were considered and decided in 2007, appellant’s claims were 

properly barred under the Knaffla rule. 

Affirmed.