2008-M-081             Philip Vance, petitioner, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

Vance was convicted in 2004 of the December 22, 2002, murder of Khaled Al-Bakri. 

In his direct appeal, Vance asserted that the district court erred by (1) excluding alternative-perpetrator evidence and reverse-Spreigl evidence; (2) allowing, without providing a cautionary instruction, testimony that State witnesses were fearful; (3) failing to give an instruction regarding unredacted police statements that suggested Vance was untruthful; and (4) excluding a letter from Al-Bakri's brother to a witness for the State.  Vance also claimed that he had newly discovered evidence in the form of a recantation by a witness for the State and that the prosecutor committed misconduct by crying during the trial and closing arguments.  We found no prejudicial errors and affirmed the conviction.  

In May 2007, Vance filed a petition for post-conviction relief with the district court.  The district court summarily denied the petition, concluding that “[t]he claims in  the petitions were either raised and decided on appeal already, or were known and not raised at the time of appeal.”  Additionally, according to the district court, Vance‟s claims for relief “are baseless, lack specificity and are without merit.” 

Because the petitioner did file or could have filed all of his current appeals on this current petition for post-convictions relief during his earlier appeals, the Court rejected this petition under the precedent of Knaffla.

Page (Paul Anderson,  Meyer, Barry Anderson, Gildea, and Dietzen)

               Took no part:  Magnuson

[MURDER}