Facts: After reaching a plea agreement, petitioner Michael McKiearnan was convicted of first degree robbery and sentenced in the Superior Court for Snohomish County. McKiearnan subsequently filed a personal restraint petition requesting to withdraw his guilty plea, asserting that he was not properly informed of the consequences of his plea and that his petition was not time barred by the one year statute of limitations established by Washington Revised Code §10.73.090(1) insofar as the judgment and sentence were facially invalid. The Washington Court of Appeals dismissed McKiearnan’s petition, ruling that although McKiearnan’s written plea statement and his judgment and sentence form had misstated the maximum penalty for first degree robbery, this did not render McKiearnan’s judgment and sentence facially invalid and that McKiearnan’s petition was therefore time barred. McKiearnan appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s): Did McKiearnan’s erroneous plea statement and judgment and sentence form render his judgment and sentence facially invalid?

Conclusion: Justice Chambers’ opinion for a unanimous Court held that McKiearnan’s judgment and sentence were not facially invalid as although the written plea statement and the judgment and sentence form both misstated the maximum penalty for first degree robbery as twenty years to life imprisonment rather than simply life imprisonment, this error did not leave McKiearnan unaware of the maximum sentence that could be imposed upon him. Thus, the Court dismissed McKiearnan’s petition as time barred.

Docket No. 81102-4 (from Court of Appeals Division I Case No. 60780-4)

Petitioner: Michael McKiearnan

Respondent: State

Briefs:

Argument: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 2:30pm

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Prevailing Party: State (Respondent)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Alexander

Johnson

Madsen

Sanders

Chambers
(Majority)

Owens

Fairhurst

Johnson

Stephens