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Jensen v. State11/2/2004
[ ] Jensen claims he was wrongly denied counsel for this post- conviction proceeding and for his prior post-conviction proceedings. To the extent Jensen claims he was wrongly denied counsel for his prior post-conviction proceedings, that issue has been rejected in a prior appeal. See Jensen, 2003 ND 28, 5, 660 N.W.2d 232.
[ ] The appointment of post-conviction counsel is a matter of trial court discretion, and we will not reverse a trial court's refusal to appoint counsel absent an abuse of that discretion. Crumley v. State, 2000 ND 110, 11, 611 N.W.2d 165. A trial court should read applications for post-conviction relief in the light most favorable to the applicant, and when a substantial issue of law or fact may exist, the trial court should appoint counsel. Id. However, a trial court does not abuse its discretion in refusing to appoint counsel when the application for relief is completely without merit. Id. We conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Jensen's request for court- appointed counsel for this proceeding.
IV.
[ ] Jensen argues the judge in the post-conviction proceedings should have recused herself. In February 2004, Jensen moved to recuse Judge Kleven and all judges in the Northeast Central Judicial District from acting upon his application for post-conviction relief. Jensen claimed all five judges in that district have their offices or main chambers in the same building, and Judge Kleven was a friend of the judge who denied him a fair and unbiased trial in his underlying criminal case. We have effectively rejected Jensen's claims that he was deprived of a fair and unbiased trial in prior proceedings, and we conclude Jensen's bald and unsupported assertions in this proceeding were not sufficient to require Judge Kleven to recuse herself.
V.
[ ] We affirm the judgment denying Jensen post-conviction relief.
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