Hall v. Ward , 117 F. App'x 18 ( 2004 )

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
OCT 19 2004
TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
BEVERLY BERNICE HALL,
Petitioner-Appellant, No. 04-5049
v. (N.D. Oklahoma)
RON J. WARD, ATTORNEY (D.C. No. CV-03-59-H(J))
GENERAL OF THE STATE OF
OKLAHOMA,
Respondents-Appellees.
ORDER
Before KELLY, HENRY, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.
Beverly Hall, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, seeks a certificate of
appealability (COA) to appeal the denial of her 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition.
We deny her request for a COA and dismiss this matter.
Ms. Hall entered a plea of guilty on one court of first degree manslaughter
after former conviction of a felony, and one count of unauthorized use of a motor
vehicle. She was sentenced to thirty years on the manslaughter charge and ten
years on the vehicle charge, to be served concurrently. Ms. Hall filed a timely
motion to withdraw her plea in state court, which was denied. On April 21, 2001,
the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied her petition for certiorari.
Ms. Hall filed an application in the state district court for post-conviction
relief on July 16, 2002. The district court denied this petition on October 4, 2002
and the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the denial on January 9,
2003.
Ms. Hall filed her § 2254 petition on January 15, 2003, asserting ineffective
assistance of trial and appellate counsel, and actual innocence. The district court
denied the petition as untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1) and found that
equitable tolling did not excuse its untimeliness.
We review de novo the district court’s denial of a habeas petition based on
§ 2244(d), reviewing a district court’s findings of fact for clear error. Burger v.
Scott, 317 F.3d 1133, 1137-38 (10th Cir. 2003). “[W]e review the district court’s
decision on equitable tolling of the limitations period [, however,] for an abuse of
discretion.” Id. at 1138. Because Ms. Hall is proceeding pro se, we construe her
pleadings liberally. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520-21 (1972); Hall v.
Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 n.3 (10th Cir. 1991).
Where, as here, a district court denies a habeas petition on procedural
grounds without reaching the underlying constitutional claims, a COA should
issue if the petitioner demonstrates “that jurists of reason would find it debatable
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whether the petition states a valid claim of the denial of a constitutional right, and
that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct
in its procedural ruling.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 478 (2000).
Congress has “established a one-year period of limitations for habeas
petitions.” Hoggro v. Boone, 150 F.3d 1223, 1225 (10th Cir. 1998) (citing 28
U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)). By statute, the one-year period of limitations generally
begins running from “the date on which the judgment became final by the
conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review.”
28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(A). The one-year limitations period is tolled, however,
for “[t]he time during which a properly filed application for State post-conviction
relief . . . is pending,” see id. § 2244(d)(2), and may also in rare circumstances
“be subject to equitable tolling.” Miller v. Marr, 141 F.3d 976, 978 (10th Cir.
1998); see Gibson v. Klinger, 232 F.3d 799, 808 (10th Cir. 2000) (discussing the
limited circumstances in which equitable tolling may be warranted and noting that
“[s]imple excusable neglect is not sufficient”).
We agree with the district court’s conclusion that under § 2244(d), Ms. Hall
filed her habeas petition after the expiration of the one-year statute of limitations.
Ms. Hall’s conviction became final on July 11, 2001, after the 90-day time period
for filing a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court had
lapsed. See Locke v. Saffle, 237 F.3d 1269, 1273 (10th Cir. 2001). As a result,
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the one-year limitation clock started to run on July 11, 2001. Absent a tolling
event, Ms. Hall was therefore required to file her habeas petition on or before
July 11, 2002, for the petition to be timely. Because Ms. Hall did not seek post-
conviction relief until after July 11, 2002, no tolling event occurred.
Ms. Hall contends that, with the application of the prisoner mailbox rule
announced in Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266 (1988), her application for post-
conviction relief was actually filed on either July 11 or July 12, 2002. We agree
with the district court that the prisoner mailbox rule does not apply to Oklahoma’s
state post-conviction filings. See Moore v. Gibson, 27 P.3d 483 (Okla Ct. Crim.
App. 2001). We therefore reject Ms. Hall’s argument.
Ms. Hall also sought equitable tolling before the district court. Equitable
tolling is appropriate only “when an inmate diligently pursues h[er] claims and
demonstrates that the failure to timely file was caused by extraordinary
circumstances beyond h[er] control.” Marsh v. Soares, 223 F.3d 1217, 1220 (10th
Cir. 2000) (emphasis added). Ms. Hall claims she is actually innocent and that
her innocence should toll AEDPA’s one-year limitations period.
[W]e have limited equitable tolling of the one-year limitations period
to “rare and exceptional” circumstances. Therefore, [e]quitable tolling
would be appropriate, for example, when a prisoner is actually
innocent, when an adversary’s conduct–or other uncontrollable
circumstances–prevents a prisoner from timely filing, or when a
prisoner actively pursues judicial remedies but files a defective pleading
during the statutory period.
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Burger v. Scott, 317 F.3d 1133, 1141 (10th Cir. 2003) (emphasis added) (citation
omitted).
To demonstrate actual innocence before the district court, a petitioner must
establish that “‘it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have
convicted h[er] in light of the new evidence.’” Phillips v. Ferguson, 182 F.3d
769, 774 (10th Cir. 1999) (quoting Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 327 (1995)). To
support her claim of actual innocence, Ms. Hall offers her ineffective assistance
of counsel claim, contends there was no factual basis for the plea, and reiterates
her demand for a trial by jury. We have reviewed the entire record, the district
court’s order, and the brief on appeal. We agree with the district court’s
conclusion that Ms. Hall is not entitled to equitable tolling.
III. CONCLUSION
We conclude that the district court correctly dismissed Ms. Hall’s habeas
petition as untimely. We determine that Ms. Hall has failed to raise a debatable
issue, and therefore we DENY her request for a COA, and DISMISS the appeal.
Entered for the Court,
Robert H. Henry
Circuit Judge
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