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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA longtime criminal who was convicted of violating his parole on an attempted robbery sentence was deprived a hearing on a corrected record and therefore is entitled to post-conviction relief, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
Tyrone Grayson was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2002 for a conviction of attempted robbery and 10 years for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, which were to be served consecutively. He was paroled in 2010 and arrested in early 2014 on another firearm possession count for which he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The trial court revoked Grayson’s parole, finding he had been paroled from the attempted robbery charge, but in a pro se complaint, Grayson argued he had served that sentence. The Department of Correction fixed the court records to show Grayson was on parole for the earlier firearm conviction, which satisfied the trial court.
But Grayson succeeded in his pro se habeas appeal, arguing he was deprived a hearing to present his case on the violation on the correct conviction. “Because parolees charged with violations of parole are within the protection of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, we find that Grayson was entitled to an opportunity to be heard on the allegation that he violated parole for the correct sentence,” Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote.
“We therefore reverse the trial court’s grant of the State’s motion to dismiss and for summary disposition with instructions to grant post-conviction relief on the parole revocation of Grayson’s twenty-year sentence for attempted robbery in Cause No. 164749,” the panel held in Tyrone Grayson v. State of Indiana, 67A01-1511-MI-1943.
Grayson remains incarcerated on the later firearm charge.
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