Bell v. North Dakota
Annotate this CaseKyle Kenneth Bell appealed a district court’s judgment grant of summary judgment in favor of the State. In 1999, Bell was convicted of murder, a class AA felony. Bell appealed his conviction to the North Dakota Supreme Court, which dismissed Bell’s appeal after concluding he had abandoned the appeal after escaping from custody. The United States Supreme Court denied Bell’s petition for a writ of certiorari of his conviction. In March 2001, Bell applied for post-conviction relief. His application was dismissed by the district court and affirmed by the North Dakota Supreme Court. In October 2021, Bell filed for a second post-conviction relief application arguing that certain testimony proffered at trial was unconstitutional, that this testimony resulted in perjury, that his trial counsel was ineffective, and that North Dakota v. Pickens, 916 N.W.2d 612 established a new rule of law requiring reversal of his case. Bell argued his post-conviction relief application should have been considered although it was submitted more than two years after Pickens was decided and beyond the statute of limitations. Bell argued the “restraint of being incarcerated in a federal facility with limited access to caselaw” constituted a “physical disability” under N.D.C.C. § 29-32.1-01(3)(a)(2). The State raised the affirmative defenses of misuse of process, res judicata, and statute of limitations, and moved for summary judgment. The Supreme Court determined the limitation on Bell’s access to state case law as the result of being held in a federal correctional facility did not constitute a physical disability extending the statute of limitations for the filing of his application for post-conviction relief. Accordingly, summary judgment was affirmed.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.