In re Personal Restraint of Carter
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The State appealed the reversal of Respondent Ernest Carter's sentence. The Court of Appeals applied the "actual innocence doctrine" to hear Respondent's untimely personal restraint petition (PRP) and held that Respondent was erroneously sentenced as a persistent offender under the Persistent Offender Accountability Act (POAA) of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981. In 1998, the superior court entered a judgment and sentence convicting Respondent on two counts of robbery in the first degree and sentenced him as a persistent offender to life in prison. Respondent's prior offenses included a 1983 California conviction for assault with a firearm on a police officer and a 1990 Oregon conviction for attempted murder. Respondent timely filed a direct appeal raising nine issues including a claim that his prior California assault conviction was not comparable to a Washington strike offense under the POAA and should not have been counted toward his sentence. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in an unpublished opinion. Almost seven years after the mandate, Respondent filed this PRP, arguing that his due process rights were violated during his 1998 trial when he appeared in shackles and that his sentence was unlawful. Respondent argued on appeal that: (1) there had been a significant change in the law (RCW 10.73.100(6)), (2) the sentence imposed was in excess of the court’s jurisdiction (RCW 10.73.100(5)), (3) Respondent's judgment and sentence were facially invalid (RCW 10.73.090), (4) equitable tolling under Washington common law warranted review, and (5) the federal actual innocence doctrine warranted review. The Court of Appeals dismissed Carter’s shackling claim as untimely, applied the actual innocence doctrine to the comparability issue, declined to address his alternative claims for relief, vacated Respondent's persistent offender sentence, and remanded for resentencing on the comparability issue. Upon review, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case because the Court of Appeals erroneously applied the actual innocence doctrine to hear Respondent's untimely PRP prior to considering his other claimed exceptions to the time bar in RCW 10.73.090.
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