Opinion ID: 1347679
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: habeas review

Text: Gardner raised numerous issues in his petition for post-conviction relief, and the district court addressed the merits of all of them. The issues a petitioner may properly raise in a petition for post-conviction relief, however, are limited. Rule 65B(b) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure provides for post-conviction relief for those who have been wrongfully imprisoned due to a substantial denial of rights. Nevertheless, the rules that govern a Rule 65B proceeding limit the kinds of issues that can properly be raised and considered. A petition for post-conviction relief, or habeas corpus, collaterally attacks a conviction and/or a sentence. It is not a substitute for direct appellate review. Codianna v. Morris, 660 P.2d 1101, 1104 (Utah 1983). Issues raised and disposed of on direct appeal of a conviction or a sentence cannot properly be raised again in a Rule 65B proceeding, Hurst v. Cook, 777 P.2d 1029, 1036 (Utah 1989), and should be dismissed as an abuse of the writ without a ruling on the merits. Issues that could and should have been raised on direct appeal, but were not, may not properly be raised in a habeas corpus proceeding absent unusual circumstances. Fernandez v. Cook, 783 P.2d 547, 549 (Utah 1989); Codianna, 660 P.2d at 1104. The unusual circumstances test requires a showing of an obvious injustice or a substantial and prejudicial denial of a constitutional right. Hurst, 777 P.2d at 1035; Fernandez, 783 P.2d at 549; Codianna, 660 P.2d at 1005; Dunn v. Cook, 791 P.2d 873, 876 (Utah 1990). `[T]he unusual circumstances test was intended to assure fundamental fairness and to require reexamination of a conviction on habeas corpus when the nature of the alleged error was such that it would be unconscionable not to reexamine ... and thereby to assure that substantial justice [was] done....' Hurst, 777 P.2d at 1035 (quoting Codianna, 660 P.2d at 1115 (Stewart, J., concurring)). In all events, it is not the function of a Rule 65B proceeding to allow a defendant to scour the record of the original proceeding for a technical error upon which to collaterally attack a conviction or a sentence. Ordinarily, assertions of error based on evidentiary, procedural, and instructional rulings are deemed waived under the law unless an erroneous ruling made the trial fundamentally unfair. Id. at 1035 n. 5. In all Rule 65B proceedings, it is the burden of the petitioner, i.e., the defendant in the initial proceeding, to plead and prove the existence of such fundamental unfairness. On the basis of the foregoing principles, we will not review the merits of six issues that Gardner has raised in his petition for post-conviction relief; indeed, the trial court's rulings on the merits of those issues were improper. Two of the issues Gardner raises will be addressed on the merits: (1) Ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and on direct appeal; and (2) error in the habeas proceeding in not appointing an investigator and an expert witness at state expense to assist Gardner in prosecuting his petition.