2013-M-253 Brian Keith Hooper, petitioner, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.
Following a jury trial, the district court convicted appellant Brian Keith Hooper of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to three concurrent sentences of life imprisonment with the possibility of release. We affirmed Hooper’s convictions on direct appeal and the denial of his first two petitions for post-conviction relief. See Hooper v. State (Hooper II), 680 N.W.2d 89 (Minn. 2004); State v. Hooper (Hooper I), 620 N.W.2d 31 (Minn. 2000). The present appeal involves Hooper’s third petition for
post-conviction relief, in which Hooper alleges that he is entitled to a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that: (1) he is innocent; (2) the trial judge’s law clerk improperly dissuaded a defense witness from testifying at Hooper’s trial; (3) the State withheld important evidence from him; and (4) three trial witnesses have recanted their testimony. Hooper also appeals the denial of his motion to remove all current and former judges of the Fourth Judicial District for cause. We affirm.
1. Failure to satisfy the limitations period in Minn. Stat. § 590.01, subd. 4(a) (2012), which requires that a petition for post-conviction relief be filed within 2 years after a conviction becomes final, does not deprive a post-conviction court of subject matter jurisdiction over a petition.
2. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that appellant’s newly discovered evidence of an alleged confession by an alternative perpetrator did not entitle him to a new trial.
3. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that appellant’s witness-recantation evidence did not entitle him to a new trial.
4. The chief judge did not abuse his discretion when he denied appellant’s motion to remove the entire Fourth Judicial District bench for cause.
Affirmed.
Stras (Gildea, Page, Anderson, and Dietzen, and Wright)
Took no part Lillehaug
[MURDER]
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