Ortiz v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 211 Conn. App. 378

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted, on a plea of guilty, of the crime of murder, appealed to this court from the judgment of the habeas court dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The habeas petition had been filed more than six years after the petitioner's guilty plea was determined to be a final judgment due to the expiration of the time period allowed for appeal and after October 1, 2017. The respondent Commissioner of Correction filed a request, pursuant to statute (§ 52- 470), for an order to show cause for the petitioner's delay in filing the habeas petition. Following a hearing, the habeas court found that the petitioner, who claimed that mental health and cognitive disabilities had prevented him from timely filing his habeas petition, had failed to show good cause as required by § 52-470 for the late filing. Thereafter, the court denied the petition for certification to appeal, and the petitioner appealed to this court. Held that the habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petition for certification to appeal, the peti- tioner having failed to demonstrate that the issues involved in his appeal were debatable among jurists of reason, that a court could resolve the issues in a different manner, or that the questions raised were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further: the only evidence that the petitioner relied on to support his claim that his mental health conditions constituted good cause for filing an untimely habeas petition were health and educational records dated between eight and fourteen years prior to the hearing before the court, and the petitioner did not provide the court with any insight into how or whether the mental health deficiencies described in the records affected the filing of the petition, thus, the court properly concluded that the petitioner did not demon- strate whether a present condition affected his ability to file a habeas petition in a timely manner; moreover, as the petitioner fi