The Colorado Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dooly v. People on Monday, June 10, 2013.

Post-conviction Relief—Crim.P. 35(c)—Crim.P. 12(a)—Ineffective Assistance of Counsel.

Defendant Joshua Dooly sought review of the court of appeals’ judgment in People v. Dooly (No. 10CA1751), which affirmed the district court’s dismissal of his application for post-conviction relief pursuant to Crim.P. 35(c). The district court denied Dooly’s request for new counsel and instead granted his existing counsel’s motion to dismiss his application altogether, on the ground that the issues it raised failed to state a claim and therefore were without arguable merit. The court of appeals upheld the district court’s order of dismissal, reasoning that Crim.P. 12(a) provides for a motion to dismiss an application for post-conviction relief, and that the public defender, as Dooly’s counsel of record, could file motions on behalf of his client, including a motion to dismiss his client’s application for relief from his convictions despite being in clear contravention of his client’s wishes.

Every person convicted of a crime is provided a statutory right to make application for post-conviction relief and is entitled to a prompt review and ruling on any motion substantially complying with Form 4 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure. Therefore, the district court erred in granting the motion to dismiss against defendant’s wishes. The judgment of the court of appeals was reversed with instructions to order that defendant’s application for post-conviction relief be reinstated.

Summary and full case available here.