Look what was left under the Christmas Tree!

2016-M-305         Robert Marlyn Taylor, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

Taylor beat his landlord/neighbor to death in Minneapolis on Christmas Day, 1999.  After shattering every bone in the victim’s skull, Taylor left the body to be found later that day by the victim’s returning wife and daughter.

Taylor’s first trial ended in a mistrial.  At his second trial before Judge Harvey Ginsberg in 2001, Taylor was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder.  On his direct appeal in 2002, the Supreme Court rejected Taylor’s claims that several errors had occurred at his second trial.  On his first post-conviction appeal in 2004, the Supreme Court rejected Taylor’s repeated claim that trial errors should earn him a third trial.  In 2004, the Supreme Court also removed Judge Ginsberg from the bench because it found that he suffered from three debilitating mental diseases.  Under Minnesota law, Taylor had two years to appeal the denial of his third appeal in 2004

In 2014, Taylor filed his second post-conviction appeal, based on Judge Ginsberg’s removal from office.  “Because Taylor did not file his petition until October 30, 2014, more than 7 years after the 2-year statute of limitations had expired, his petition is untimely, unless he can satisfy one of the five exceptions listed in law” The Supreme Court held that Taylor’s delay was not justified by any of the five exceptions to the two-year time limit.

It held that the post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it summarily denied the appellant's second petition for post-conviction relief, which was not timely filed with the post-conviction court.

Stras (Gildea, Anderson, Dietzen, Wright, Lillehaug, and Hudson)

[CRIME] [MURDER] [FIRST-DEGREE] [STRICT CONSTRUCTION]

Date: February 03, 2016