Opinion ID: 3160421
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Reasonableness of the Delay

Text: Our next task is to decide whether Jones’s thirteen-year delay was unreasonable. An assessment of reasonableness of the delay depends on the case’s particular circumstances and courts may consider factors such as, but not limited to, the length of the delay, the reason for the delay, the incentive to challenge the prior conviction, and the basis for the coram nobis petition. On this issue, we agree that the State has demonstrated by a 20 Although CP § 7-103(b) is a ten-year statute of limitations on petitions for postconviction relief, a petition for post-conviction relief can be filed only when a petitioner is incarcerated or on parole or probation. See CP § 7-101. Here, Jones was incarcerated or on probation from 1999 (when he pled guilty) to 2008 (when he finished serving his sentence for violating the order of probation); thus, Jones had nine years to petition for post-conviction relief. 21 Although the Maryland Rules and Annotated Code of Maryland have been amended since 1999 (when Jones pled guilty), the amendments have not changed the time periods in which an individual must file certain motions, applications, or petitions following a judgment of conviction; thus, above, we refer to the current versions of the Maryland Rules and Annotated Code of Maryland. - 32 - preponderance of the evidence that Jones’s thirteen-year delay was unreasonable based on the following three circumstances: (1) in 1999, the circuit court sentenced Jones to six years of incarceration, with all but eighteen months suspended, followed by three years of supervised probation, and any allegation as to voluntariness was known or should have been known at that time; (2) in 2005, the circuit court circuit court sentenced Jones to three years of incarceration for violating the order of probation, thus incentivizing Jones to challenge his 1999 conviction; and (3) the reason for the coram nobis petition was that Jones committed another crime (namely, being a felon in possession of a firearm) in 2012. Thus, Jones unreasonably delayed in filing the coram nobis petition.