Court Opinion

ID: 9524718
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:56:22.420657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:11:38.058194
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
Sections 2, 3, and 4 of Rule PC 1, provide respectively for the automatic referral of pro se petitions to the Public Defender, incorporation in the petition of a statement of fact under oath that all grounds for relief known to petitioner have been included, and the grant of leave to amend the petition at least once as a matter of right. The purpose of these provisions is to afford at least one post-conviction petition to prisoners having claims and to make that one as fully developed and complete as is reasonably and humanly possible. Success in achieving this purpose is the best way of rendering subsequent petitions unnecessary. Summary dismissal of a first pro se petition before amendment by the Public Defender quite to the contrary frustrates this important goal. Furthermore, I do not consider a delay of sixty-one days by the Public Defender in cases like this to be at all unreasonable, since in order to draft an amended petition, that office must arrange an interview with the prisoner, make investigation of the record, and complete the legal work. I would therefore reverse this judgment holding that dismissal after the Public Defender has made an appearance on behalf of the pro se petitioner and before an amended petition has been filed can be made only after an order to show cause *308why the petition should not be dismissed pursuant to Trial Rule 41(E).
SHEPARD, J., concur.