State v. Turner

Citations

• 214 Conn. App. 584

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted of the crimes of murder and assault in the first degree, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court dismissing his motion to correct an illegal sentence. At the time the defendant committed the crimes, he was twenty-one years old. Following trial, the defendant was sentenced to sixty years of incarceration. In his motion to correct, the defendant argued that his right to due process was violated when the court made assumptions at his sentencing pro- ceeding regarding his future rehabilitative potential that were materially false when contrasted with the brain science underlying the continuous growth and development of young adults during late adolescence. He also contended that he was entitled to a resentencing hearing because the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution permitted him to present evidence demonstrating that juve- nile criminal records are not indicative of rehabilitation potential. The court dismissed the motion to correct, concluding that the defendant failed to state a colorable claim for relief under Miller v. Alabama (567 U.S. 460), and its progeny. On the defendant's appeal to this court, held: 1. Although the trial court erred in holding that the defendant failed to state a colorable claim for relief, the defendant could not prevail on his motion to correct an illegal sentence: because the defendant's claim relied on the theory of youth related brain science set forth in Miller and its progeny for purposes of sentence mitigation, the defendant properly invoked the trial court's subject matter jurisdiction as his claim chal- lenged his sentence or sentence proceedings and not the underlying conviction, his claim having been predicated on the theory that the court impermissibly failed to properly consider his potential for rehabilitation when imposing the sentence of incarceration; moreover, it is well settled that a defendant who was an adult at the ti