Jimenez v. Quarterman
Issues
When a court finds that a defendant lost his right of direct appeal because of a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel, and accordingly reinstates his appeal, does the time to seek federal habeas review run from the conclusion of the reinstated proceedings?
Carlos Jimenez was convicted of burglary and, due to a prior felony, received an enhanced sentence of forty-three years in prison. Jimenez appealed to the Texas Third Court of Appeals, but through no fault of his own, was unaware that his appeal was denied until after the statute of limitations expired for him to appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In order to remedy this, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Jimenez a reinstated appeal, which essentially tolled the statute of limitations for purposes of direct review in state court. After exhausting all state remedies, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Jimenez’s federal petition for habeas corpus, stating that for purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(1)(A), “direct review” ended when he initially failed to timely appeal the decision of the Third Court of Appeals, not when his reinstated appeal was exhausted. The United States Supreme Court will decide whether the reinstated appeal tolled the statute of limitations until the completion of the reinstated direct review for purposes of 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(1)(A).
Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties
Whether a Certificate of Appealability should have issued pursuant to Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 482, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 1604 (2000) on the question of whether pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (d)(1)(A) when through no fault of the petitioner, he was unable to obtain a direct review and the highest State Court granted relief to place him back to original position on direct review, should the 1-year limitation begin to run after he has completed that direct review resetting the 1- year limitations period?
Because the underlying cases are unpublished, the following facts are taken from the parties’ briefs.