Jobe v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 334 Conn. 636

Syllabus

The petitioner, who is not a United States citizen, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, challenging, inter alia, his conviction of illegal possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. At some point after his release from custody in connection with that conviction, the petitioner traveled outside of the United States. When he attempted to return, he was denied reentry to and ordered removed from the United States on the basis of his conviction. At the time he filed his habeas petition, the petitioner was in federal immigration detention pending deportation. The habeas court, sua sponte, rendered judgment dismissing the petition, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the merits of that petition on the ground that the protections afforded in Padilla v. Ken- tucky (559 U.S. 356), which was decided after the petitioner was con- victed, did not apply retroactively to the petitioner's case. Thereafter, the petitioner, on the granting of certification, appealed to the Appellate Court. After the petitioner filed his initial brief with that court, the respondent, the Commissioner of Correction, filed an amended prelimi- nary statement of the issues in which he raised, for the first time, as an alternative ground for affirmance, the issue of whether the habeas court had subject matter jurisdiction when the petitioner failed to allege that he was in custody at the time he filed his habeas petition within 334 Conn. 636 FEBRUARY, 2020 637 Jobe v. Commissioner of Correction the meaning of the statute (§ 52-466) governing applications for a writ of habeas corpus. In his initial brief to the Appellate Court, the respondent conceded that the habeas court improperly dismissed the petition on the basis of the nonretroactive application of Padilla but claimed that the judgment of dismissal should be affirmed on the alternative ground that the conviction challenged in the habeas petition had expired and the collateral consequences of that conviction were insuf