State v. Milne

The subject of this criminal appeal is defendant’s second petition for post-conviction relief (PCR). The trial court denied the petition after concluding that defendant had filed it over ten years after the underlying conviction and over five years after the relevant case law allowed him to seek relief. The Appellate Division remanded the matter to the trial court with instructions to conduct a plenary hearing. We are persuaded to reverse the Appellate Division and to hold that defendant’s petition procedurally is barred.

I

This appeal comes to us with a lengthy history. We summarize only so…