An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Post-conviction Review in Order To Facilitate the Fair Hearing of All Newly Discovered Evidence
Maine Legislature, Session 130, LD 0054
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: EVANGELOS, MIRAMANT, HARNETT, PLUECKER, TALBOT ROSS, WARREN, BAILEY, CARNEY
Amends: 15 MRSA §2128-B

Legislative Document
No. 54
H.P. 20
House of Representatives, January 13, 2021
An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Post-conviction Review in 
Order To Facilitate the Fair Hearing of All Newly Discovered 
Evidence
Received by the Clerk of the House on January 11, 2021.  Referred to the Committee on 
Criminal Justice and Public Safety pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to 
Joint Rule 401.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative EVANGELOS of Friendship.
Cosponsored by Senator MIRAMANT of Knox and
Representatives: HARNETT of Gardiner, PLUECKER of Warren, TALBOT ROSS of 
Portland, WARREN of Hallowell, Senators: BAILEY of York, CARNEY of Cumberland.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  15 MRSA §2128-B, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 601, §11, is amended 
to read:
1.  Filing deadline for direct impediment.  A Except as provided in subsection 1-A, 
a one-year period of limitation applies to initiating a petition for post-conviction review 
seeking relief from a criminal judgment under section 2124, subsection 1 or 1-A.  The 
limitation period runs from the latest later of the following:
A.  The date of final disposition of the direct appeal from the underlying criminal 
judgment or the expiration of the time for seeking the appeal; and
B.  The date on which the constitutional right, state or federal, asserted was initially 
recognized by the Law Court or the Supreme Court of the United States if the right has 
been newly recognized by that highest court and made retroactively applicable to cases 
on collateral review; or.
C.  The date on which the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have 
been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.
The time during which a properly filed petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court 
of the United States with respect to the same criminal judgment is pending is not counted 
toward any period of limitation under this subsection.
Sec. 2.  15 MRSA §2128-B, sub-§1-A is enacted to read:
1-A.  No filing deadline for direct impediment if newly discovered evidence.  If the 
factual predicate of a claim is based on newly discovered evidence, then the claim may be 
filed at any time regardless of when the newly discovered evidence could have been 
obtained or discovered through the exercise of due diligence.  The court may require the 
petitioner to provide additional information about the nature of the newly discovered 
evidence.  The fact that a petition initiated pursuant to subsection 1, former paragraph C 
was dismissed as untimely filed or for the failure to exercise due diligence does not 
preclude the initiation of a petition for review under this subsection based on the same or 
different newly discovered evidence. 
SUMMARY
This bill provides that there is no deadline for filing a petition for post-conviction 
review based on newly discovered evidence.  The court may require the petitioner to 
provide additional information about the nature of the newly discovered evidence.  
This bill ensures that a person may seek post-conviction review on the basis of newly 
discovered evidence even if the person had filed for review and the petition was dismissed 
because it was untimely filed or because the evidence was not discovered earlier because 
of the lack of due diligence.