Court Opinion

ID: 9710529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:11:22.521443+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:57.403756
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur specially because:
Podoll claims there is no factual basis in this record to support his plea that he was mentally ill at the time of the offenses. If no factual basis appears, Podoll may not have been mentally ill. If he was not mentally ill, then he may be sane but imprisoned as mentally ill.
The majority opinion refuses to examine Podoll’s claim on the merits because it chooses not to expend judicial resources doing so. The majority opinion’s “choice” is made despite subsection (3) of SDCL 21-27-16, which states:
(3) Where the process is defective in some substantial form required by law; (emphasis added)
and despite this court’s unanimous decision in Security Sav. Bank v. Mueller, 308 N.W.2d 761 (S.D.1981), which held that compliance with substantive statutory procedures are also subject to challenge in habeas corpus proceedings. Podoll’s claim involves substantive statutory procedures and goes to whether his plea can even be accepted.