IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE
AT JACKSON
APRIL 1997 SESSION
FILED
July 18, 1997
Cecil Crowson, Jr.
Appellate C ourt Clerk
JAMES MORNING CRAFT, ) NO. 02C01-9606-CR-00194
)
Appellant ) SHELBY COUNTY
)
V. ) HON. W. FRED AXLEY, JUDGE
)
STATE OF TENNESSEE, ) (Post-Conviction)
)
Appellee )
)
FOR THE APPELLANT FOR THE APPELLEE
James Morning Craft John Knox Walkup
Cold Creek Correctional Facility Attorney General and Reporter
P.O. Box 1000 450 James Robertson Parkway
Henning, Tennessee 38041-1000 Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0493
Elizabeth T. Ryan
Assistant Attorney General
450 James Robertson Parkway
Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0493
John W. Pierotti
District Attorney General
201 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38103-1947
C. Alanda Horne
Assistant District Attorney General
201 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38103-1947
OPINION FILED:______
AFFIRMED
William M. Barker, Judge
Opinion
The Appellant, James Morning Craft, appeals as of right the Shelby County
Criminal Court’s dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief. The petition was
dismissed without a hearing, because it was filed outside the applicable statute of
limitations. Although the Appellant raises several issues on appeal, the applicable
statute of limitations period is dispositive. After reviewing the record on appeal, we
find that the trial court properly dismissed the petition.
On January 26, 1988, the Appellant was convicted of felony murder and later
sentenced to life imprisonment. He unsuccessfully appealed that conviction to this
Court. State v. James Morning Craft & Lewis Moorlet, C.C.A. No. 31 (Tenn. Crim.
App., Jackson, Mar. 8, 1989). On August 7, 1989, the Tennessee Supreme Court
denied his permission to appeal.
On April 24, 1992, the Appellant filed a pro se petition requesting post-
conviction relief. After a hearing on the merits the trial court denied the petition and
this Court affirmed. James Craft v. State, C.A.A. No. 02C01-9405-CR-00091 (Tenn.
Crim. App., Jackson, Dec. 7, 1994). At some point, the Appellant filed a second
petition for post-conviction relief which was dismissed in January of 1994. The
Appellant filed this third petition on July 11, 1996, alleging that the trial court erred by
allowing him to be tried on an invalid indictment and that the trial court submitted
erroneous information to the Department of Correction. The trial court dismissed the
petition as time barred by the statute of limitations.
The Appellant’s post-conviction petition is governed by the now-repealed Post-
Conviction Procedure Act. Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-30-101 et seq (repealed 1995).
That Act imposed a three year statute of limitations on post-conviction petitions.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-30-102 (repealed 1995). It also provided that the limitations
period runs from the date of the final action of the highest state appellate court to
which an appeal is taken. Id.
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With regard to this case, the final action of a state appellate court took place on
August 7, 1989, when the Tennessee Supreme Court denied the Appellant’s
permission to appeal petition. The statute of limitations expired three years after that
date, in August of 1992. Consequently, the Appellant’s petition for post-conviction
relief, which was filed in 1996, is barred by the statute of limitation.
Any contention by the Appellant that the new Post-Conviction Procedure Act,
effective May 10, 1995, provided him with a one-year window of opportunity within
which to file his post-conviction petition is meritless. Similar attempts to circumvent
the statute of limitations in this manner have been previously rejected by panels of this
Court. See Roy Barnett v. State, C.C.A. No. 03C01-9512-CV-00394 (Tenn. Crim.
App., Knoxville, Feb. 20, 1997); Stephen Koprowski v. State, C.A.A. No. 03C01-9511-
CC-00365 (Tenn. Crim. App., Knoxville, Jan. 28, 1997); Johnny L. Butler v. State,
C.C.A. No. 02C01-9509-CR-00289 (Tenn. Crim. App., Jackson, Dec. 2, 1996). But
see Arnold Carter v. State, C.C.A. No. 03C01-9509-CC-00270 (Tenn. Crim. App.,
Knoxville, July 11, 1996).
Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s dismissal of the Appellant’s post-
conviction petition.
__________________________
WILLIAM M. BARKER, JUDGE
CONCUR:
__________________________
JOSEPH M. TIPTON, JUDGE
__________________________
DAVID G. HAYES, JUDGE
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