Habteselassie v. Novak

• Decision Date: 21 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-1081,99-1081
• Citation: 209 F.3d 1208
• Parties: (10th Cir. 2000) TESAGER HABTESELASSIE, Petitioner-Appellant, v. JUNITA NOVAK; ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF COLORADO, Respondents-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1208

209 F.3d 1208 (10th Cir. 2000)

TESAGER HABTESELASSIE, Petitioner-Appellant, v. JUNITA NOVAK; ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF COLORADO, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 99-1081

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT

April 21, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado (D.C. No. 98-Z-2666) Submitted on the briefs:^*

Tesager Habteselassie, Pro Se.

Ken Salazar, Attorney General of Colorado and Clemmie Parker Engle, Senior Assistant Attorney General of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, for Respondents-Appellees.

Before BRORBY, EBEL, and LUCERO Circuit Judges.

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner-Appellant Tesager Habteselassie was convicted of first degree murder in the Arapahoe County, Colorado District Court in 1991, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. On March 28, 1996, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction, and on October 15, 1996, the Colorado Supreme Court denied his Petition for Writ of Certiorari. Habteselassie also sought state post-conviction relief, filing a Rule 35(c) Motion for Post-Conviction Relief in Arapahoe County District Court on March 10, 1997. The district court denied the motion on February 4, 1998. Habteselassie then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254 in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on November 30, 1998. The district court denied Habteselassie's habeas petition on the ground that the petition was barred by the one-year period of limitation under 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(1). Habteselassie sought a certificate of appealability to this court, but that motion was denied by the district court. We granted a certificate of appealability pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2253(c)(1) to determine if Habteselassie is entitled to the benefit of the tolling provision contained in 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(2) and if his habeas petition is thereby rendered timely. For the following reasons, we reverse and remand.¹

As relevant here, a one-year period of limitation applies to an application for a federal writ of habeas corpus and begins to run from the latest of "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).

[T]he judgment is not final and the one-year limitation period for filing for federal post-conviction relief does not begin to run until after the United States Supreme Court has denied review, or, if no petition for certiorari is filed, after the time for filing a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court has passed.

Rhine v. Boone, 182 F.3d 1153, 1155 (10th Cir. 1999). Because Habteselassie did not file a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, the one-year period of limitation started to run ninety days after October 15, 1996, the date the Colorado Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari and his state court review was thus completed. See Sup. Ct. R. 13 (indicating that a petition for a writ of certiorari is timely when it is filed within ninety days following the entry of judgment). Accordingly, absent any tolling of the limitations period, Habteselassie would only have had until January 13, 1998, to file a habeas corpus petition in federal court and his petition of November 30, 1998, would have been untimely.

Section 2244(d)(2) allows a federal habeas petitioner to toll this period of limitations while he seeks state post-conviction relief, however. Section 2244(d)(2) provides: "The time during which a properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to the pertinent judgment or claim is pending shall not be counted toward any period of limitation under this subsection." The district court held that the time during which Habteselassie's motion for state post-conviction relief was pending could not be tolled pursuant to 2244(d)(2) because that motion was not "properly filed." The district court reasoned that the motion "was not properly filed because the state court determined that the claims should have been raised on direct appeal." Had the court found that Habteselassie's motion for post-conviction relief in the state court had been "properly filed," the period of limitations in Habteselassie's case would have been tolled for 331 days, the period that his motion was pending in state court, and Habteselassie would have had until December 10, 1998 to file a timely federal habeas petition. Because Habteselassie filed his federal habeas petition ten days before this deadline, whether his petition was timely turns on the definition of "properly filed" under 2244(d)(2) as applied to his state petition for post-conviction relief.

Congress did not define the attributes of a "properly filed application" under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"), see Villegas v. Johnson, 184 F.3d 467, 470 (5th Cir. 1999), and the meaning of this phrase is a question of first impression in this circuit.² We believe that a "properly filed" application is one filed according to the filing requirements for a motion for state post-conviction relief. These requirements may include: (1) the place and time³ of filing; (2) the payment or waiver of any required filing fees; (3) the obtaining of any necessary judicial authorizations that are conditions precedent to filing, such as satisfying any filing preconditions that may have been imposed on an abusive filer; and (4) other conditions precedent that the state may impose upon the filing of a post-conviction motion. By contrast, affirmative defenses that preclude a court from granting relief on the merits, as opposed to pure filing requirements, require analysis in some manner of the substance of the claims set forth by the petitioner and do not prevent a motion from being "properly filed" for purposes of 2244(d)(2). Substantive impediments to relief of this nature include prohibitions against the filing of successive or abusive petitions, the requirement that claims be brought on direct appeal if possible, and the judicial doctrine of res judicata.

The definition of "properly filed" adopted by this court is consistent with the view of the majority of circuit courts to have considered this question, although these courts have articulated the definition in varying ways.⁴ See Bennett v. Artuz, 199 F.3d 116, 123 (2d Cir. 1999), cert. granted, 120 S.Ct. 1669, -- L.Ed. -- (2000) (No. 99-1238) ("We . . . construe 'properly filed' to mean simply that an application for state post-conviction relief recognized as such under governing state procedures has been filed."); Villegas, 184 F.3d at 470 & n.2 ("[W]e hold that a 'properly filed application' for 2244(d)(2) purposes is one that conforms with a state's applicable procedural filing requirements. . . . By procedural filing requirements, we mean those prerequisites that must be satisfied before a state court will allow a petition to be filed and accorded some level of judicial review."); Lovasz v. Vaughn, 134 F.3d 146, 148-49 (3d Cir. 1998) ("We believe that 'a properly filed application' is one submitted according to the state's procedural requirements, such as the rules governing the time and place of filing. . . . [Federal] district courts should not inquire into its merits."); see also Patterson v. Director, Virginia Dep't of Corrections, 36 F. Supp. 2d 317, 320 (E.D. Va. 1999) ("[A] 'properly filed' petition is 'one submitted according to the state's procedural requirements, such as the rules governing time and place of filing,' and . . . this is so without regard to the merits of the petition." (quoting Lovasz, 134 F.3d at 147)); Souch v. Harkins, 21 F. Supp. 2d 1083, 1086-87 (D. Ariz. 1998) ("[T]he state petition may have constituted a 'properly filed application' for tolling purposes even if the superior court had dismissed it solely on the ground of procedural default. The majority of courts analyzing the meaning of 'properly filed application' have interpreted the phrase to encompass all applications submitted in compliance with basic state filing requirements, such as the rules governing the time and place of filing.").

We decline to follow the minority view that construes 2244(d)(2) to mean that a state post-conviction petition is not properly filed if it is ultimately determined to be procedurally barred or otherwise is determined to be frivolous or without merit. See Weekley v. Moore, 204 F.3d 1083, 1086 (11th Cir. 2000) (finding that state post-conviction motions dismissed by the state court as successive were not "properly filed"). Incorporating any such substantive requirement into 2244(d)(2) would have unfortunate consequences. State prisoners wishing to pursue federal habeas relief would be compelled to file their federal petitions within one year after their state conviction becomes final, even if their state post-conviction motions were still pending, in order to guarantee the timeliness of their petitions. A state petitioner could not risk the possibility that a properly filed state post-conviction petition might later be thrown out because of the affirmative defense of procedural bar, thereby leaving the petitioner with no tolling protection during the pendency of that state petition.⁵ Such a result undermines Congress' desire in enacting the AEDPA to encourage exhaustion of state remedies. See 28 U.S.C. 2254(b)(1).

In defending a state conviction in a federal habeas action, states often argue that the petition is procedurally barred under state law and that, as a result, there is an adequate and independent state law basis for the conviction. Where such an argument is made to a federal district court before the state court has had the opportunity to resolve the question of procedural bar, the federal district court is placed in the awkward position of either: (1) holding the habeas petition in abeyance until the state court has adjudicated any issues related to procedural...