Harry Jerome Evans v. State of Minnesota

Summary

The court affirmed denial of Evans’s motion to correct his sentence, holding that the statutory scheme required life imprisonment without the possibility of release for his first-degree murder conviction. It concluded that the statutes were consistent, that the sentence did not involve judicial fact-finding increasing the statutory maximum, and that imposing the mandatory sentence was not an upward departure. The court also held that the postconviction court did not abuse its discretion in denying relief.