Hand v. State, 2020 UT 8 (Feb. 19, 2020)

The supreme court reversed the dismissal of the petitioner’s petition under the Post-Conviction Remedies Act, holding his prior petition that he had voluntarily dismissed did not constitute a “previous request for post-conviction relief.”  The court applied the “settled view of the effect of a voluntary dismissal under civil rule 41(a)(1)(A)”; that “such a dismissal renders the proceedings a nullity and leaves the parties as if the action had never been brought.”