AN ACT CONCERNING TIME LIMITATIONS ON THE FILING OF APPEALS AND HABEAS CORPUS APPLICATIONS IN CAPITAL FELONY CASES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes, any person convicted of a capital felony and sentenced to death in accordance with section 53a-46a of the general statutes who takes a direct appeal of such conviction to the Supreme Court shall file such appeal not later than twenty-one days after imposition of sentence. The Supreme Court shall consolidate such appeal with the sentence review required pursuant to section 53a-46b of the general statutes as provided in subsection (c) of said section.

(b) The defendant's briefs and the state's briefs shall be filed in accordance with a schedule that will ensure that all briefs are filed not later than four months after the date of the imposition of sentence.

(c) The Supreme Court shall schedule oral argument not later than six months after the date of the imposition of sentence.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) An application for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to section 52-466 of the general statutes challenging a capital felony conviction or the imposition of a sentence of death pursuant to section 53a-46a of the general statutes shall be filed not later than one hundred eighty days after the date of the imposition of such sentence. Such application shall fully plead all cognizable claims that the defendant's conviction or sentence was entered in violation of the Constitution or laws of the state or the Constitution of the United States. The court shall hold a hearing on such application not later than one hundred eighty days after the filing of such application.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the filing of a subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus shall not be barred if (1) the facts underlying the claim were unknown to the defendant or the defendant's attorney and could not have been ascertained by the exercise of due diligence prior to the filing of the earlier application, and (2) the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would have reasonably led the original trier of fact to have either found the defendant not guilty or not sentence the defendant to death. The court shall hold a hearing on such subsequent application not later than one hundred eighty days after the filing of such application.

(c) The Chief Court Administrator shall designate one judge of the Superior Court to hear and decide all applications for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a person convicted of a capital felony and sentenced to death in accordance with section 53a-46a of the general statutes.

Statement of Purpose:

To create a workable death penalty appeal process by setting deadlines that both the state and the defendant must meet.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]