Willis W. v. Office of Adult Probation

Citations

• 212 Conn. App. 628

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted, following a guilty plea, of two counts of reckless endangerment in the first degree, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming that his trial counsel had rendered ineffective assistance. The petitioner had been sentenced, inter alia, to a period of three years of probation, which ended on April 7, 2020. The habeas court granted the respondent's motion to dismiss the petition on the basis that it lacked jurisdiction, as the court did not receive the petition until April 24, 2020, at which point the petitioner was not in custody. The habeas court granted the petition for certification to appeal, and the petitioner appealed to this court. Held that the habeas court properly dismissed the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction: although the petitioner effected personal delivery of his petition to a state marshal on the final day of his probation, the court declined to apply the savings statute (§ 52-593a), as a habeas action, unlike other civil actions, is not initiated until a petitioner files the petition with the clerk of the court for review by a judge; moreover, this court declined to review the petitioner's claim that he met the ''in custody'' requirement of the statute (§ 52-466) because he was being deprived of his liberty as a result of two standing criminal protective orders, effective for ten years, which were entered by the court at sentencing, as the petitioner failed to distinctly raise this claim before the habeas court and the court did not rule on this claim in a manner adverse to the petitioner. Argued March 10—officially released May 24, 2022