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Whether the denial of defendant’s petition for postconviction relief was not erroneous because the evidence was not newly discovered evidence?
Defendant and her boyfriend were convicted of murder. Defendant brought a petition for post conviction relief. The trial court denied her petition without granting her a hearing. Defendant Onyelobi appealed the denial of her petition for postconviction relief without a hearing. The Minnesota Supreme Court held that her co-defendant’s affidavit that he did not tell her that he was going to shoot the victim was not newly discovered evidence because she was present when the events the evidence purports to describe occurred. Therefore, the defendant could have previously raised this issue, and failed to do so. A defendant is required to raise all known issues in the first instance, the first appeal, the first petition for post conviction relief. If a defendant fails to do so, and then later files a second petition for post conviction relief, said petition will be denied on the grounds that defendant should have previously raised the issue in her prior petition for post conviction relief.
State v. Onyelobi, A21-0517, Hennepin County, Minnesota Supreme Court.
Minnesota Criminal Defense Lawyer Lynne Torgerson was not attorney of record in this case.
