A Minnesota Court of Appeals recently ruled in Campos v. Minnesota, that the Padilla decision should apply retroactively. The Padilla decision was a U.S. Supreme Court case, where the Court held that a defendant who was not advised or was improperly advised of immigration consequences could withdraw his or her previously entered plea of guilty or no contest. The question that lingered after the Padilla decision that courts across the nation have been wrestling with is whether the decision applied retroactively. A defendant generally has a short period of time after their plea to file a motion to withdraw that plea. The Campos Court held that those deadlines do not apply to a Padilla challenge. It remains to be seen how other courts across the nation will address this issue.
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