Gutale v. State of Oregon

Under ORS 153.510(3)(a), a petitioner's subjective lack of awareness of the legal consequences of a plea will not delay the time in which a petition must be filed.

Plaintiff appealed a post-conviction court’s dismissal of Plaintiff’s petition for Post-conviction Relief.  Plaintiff assigned error to the post-conviction court’s determination that his petition was untimely and did not fall within the “escape clause” of ORS 138.510.  On appeal, Plaintiff argues that he did not learn that he plead guilty to a deportable offense until two years after his conviction, and thus could not reasonably assert his inadequate assistance claim within the limitations period. Under ORS 153.510(3)(a), a petitioner's subjective lack of awareness of the legal consequences of a plea will not delay the time in which a petition must be filed.  The court held that because the relevant immigration laws were publicly available to Petitioner from the start of the limitations period, his claim of inadequate assistance could have been raised within the statutory two year period.  Affirmed.