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State v. Merrill6/10/2005
igious delusions that resulted in his entering his plea without adequate comprehension of what he was doing.
The district court replaced Mr. Merrill's counsel, who, in April 2001, supplemented the post-conviction relief petition with a motion to withdraw Mr. Merrill's guilty plea. This motion was later amended to allege that Mr. Merrill had not knowingly or voluntarily entered the plea owing to the effects of his medicine.
Mr. Merrill's counsel attributed the significant lapse in time between the entry of Mr. Merrill's plea and his motion to withdraw it to Mr. Merrill's recent discovery of Zoloft's side effects. Relying on Utah Code section 77-13-6(2)(b), which states that all motions to withdraw a guilty plea must be filed within thirty days, Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-6(2)(b) (1999) (amended 2003 & 2004), the district court dismissed Mr. Merrill's motion to withdraw the plea as untimely and concluded that the motion's untimeliness left the court without jurisdiction to consider its merits. This appeal followed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code section 78-2-2(3)(i) (2004).
STANDARD OF REVIEW
We review the district court's interpretation of Utah Code section 77-13-6(2)(b) for correctness, affording no deference to its legal conclusions. State v. Ostler, 2001 UT 68, 5, 31 P.3d 528.
ANALYSIS
I. THE JURISDICTIONAL BAR
Mr. Merrill argues that the plain language of the statute, its legislative history, and case law addressing similar statutes support the proposition that the time limit to withdraw a guilty plea imposed by Utah Code section 77-13-6(2)(b) is directory only, creating no jurisdictional bar to the consideration of his motion. At the time of Mr. Merrill's plea and motion to withdraw, section 77-13-6 read:
(1) A plea of not guilty may be withdrawn at any time prior to conviction.
(2) (a) A plea of guilty or no contest may be withdrawn only upon good cause shown and with leave of the court.
(b) A request to withdraw a plea of guilty or no contest is made by motion and shall be made within 30 days after the entry of the plea.
(3) This section does not restrict the rights of an imprisoned person under Rule 65B, Utah Rules of Civil Procedure.
Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-6 (1999) (amended 2003 & 2004).
Although we have not unequivocally stated that the thirty-day filing requirement of section 77-13-6(2)(b) imposes a jurisdictional bar to late-filed requests to withdraw pleas, we have strongly implied as much.
We first addressed this issue in State v. Abeyta, 852 P.2d 993 (Utah 1993) (per curiam). Before the thirty-day limit to withdraw a guilty plea was added to Utah Code section 77-13-6, Mr. Abeyta pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery. Id. at 994; see Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-6 (1980). By the time Mr. Abeyta moved to withdraw his plea, the thirty-day time limit had been codified, see Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-6 (1989), and more than thirty days had passed from the date on which he entered his plea. Abeyta, 852 P.2d at 994. We concluded that the statutory amendment was substantive and not procedural and held that the thirty-day limit could not be applied retroactively to bar Mr. Abeyta's motion. Id. at 995. In so holding, we implied that a defendant's failure to withdraw a guilty plea within thirty days from the date on which he entered it would have jurisdictional consequences when we stated that " he amendment to the plea statute limits a defendant's right to withdraw his or her guilty plea to thirty days after entry of the plea. Thereafter, the right is extinguished." Id.
Later, in State
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