Opinion ID: 1060712
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Montro Taylor

Text: On December 19, 1971, Montro Taylor, Hugh Briggs, and an unidentified accomplice robbed a supermarket in Memphis and killed the produce manager of the store. On July 1, 1976, Taylor and Briggs were convicted of murder in the perpetration of a robbery. The jury imposed a 199-year sentence for each murder conviction, and this Court affirmed the convictions and sentences on appeal. Briggs v. State, 573 S.W.2d 157 (Tenn.1978). [2] On January 27, 1997, Taylor filed this, his first petition for post-conviction relief challenging the validity of his sentence on the ground that it was imposed pursuant to a statute that had been declared unconstitutional by this Court. The trial court dismissed the petition, and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the dismissal, concluding that the petition is time-barred by the post-conviction statute of limitations. Taylor filed an application for permission to appeal, which we granted and consolidated with the State's appeal in Gwin . We must now determine whether a sentence imposed under a statute later declared unconstitutional by this Court is (1) void and illegal and subject to being corrected at any time regardless of the post-conviction statute of limitations or (2) voidable and subject to the post-conviction statute of limitations.