Sweet v. Secretary, Dept. of Corrections, No. 05-15199.

• Decision Date: 23 October 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-15199.
• Citation: 467 F.3d 1311
• Parties: William Earl SWEET, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Attorney General, State of Florida, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

467 F.3d 1311

William Earl SWEET, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Attorney General, State of Florida, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 05-15199.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

October 23, 2006.

D. Todd Doss (Court-Appointed), D. Todd Doss, P.A., Lake City, FL, for Sweet.

Meredith Charbula, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondents-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, and MARCUS and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

In this capital case, William Earl Sweet appeals the district court's dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Sweet argues that the district court erred in dismissing his case as untimely. After thorough review, we affirm.

I.

The essential facts of this case, which we take from the opinion of the Supreme Court of Florida affirming Sweet's conviction and sentence, are these:

On June 6, 1990, Marcine Cofer was attacked in her apartment and beaten and robbed by three men. She could identify two of the men by their street names. On June 26, 1990, she was taken by Detective Robinson to the police station to look at pictures to attempt to identify the third assailant. When Robinson dropped Cofer off at her apartment, William Sweet was standing nearby and saw her leave the detective. Unknown to Cofer, Sweet had previously implicated himself in the robbery by telling a friend that he had committed the robbery or that he had ordered it done. Cofer asked her next-door neighbor, Mattie Bryant, to allow the neighbor's daughters, Felicia, thirteen, and Sharon, twelve, to stay with Cofer in her apartment that night. Mattie agreed, and the children went over to Cofer's apartment around 8 p.m.

At approximately 1 a.m. that evening, Sharon was watching television in the living room of Cofer's apartment when she heard a loud kick on the apartment door. She reported this to Cofer, who was sleeping in the bedroom, but because the person had apparently left, Cofer told Sharon not to worry about it and went back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Sharon saw someone pulling on the living room screen. She awakened Cofer. The two then went to the door of the apartment, looked out the peephole, and saw Sweet standing outside. Sweet called Cofer by name and ordered her to open the door.

At Cofer's direction, Felicia pounded on the bathroom wall to get Mattie's attention in the apartment next door, and a few minutes later Mattie came over. The four then lined up at the door, with Cofer standing in the back of the group. When they opened the door to leave, Sweet got his foot in the door and forced his way into the apartment. Sweet's face was partially covered by a pair of pants. He first shot Cofer and then shot the other three people, killing Felicia. Six shots were fired. Cofer, Mattie, and Sharon were shot in the thigh, ankle and thigh, and buttock, respectively, and Felicia was shot in the hand and in the abdomen.

Sweet was convicted of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and burglary. The jury recommended a sentence of death by a vote of ten to two, and the trial court followed this recommendation.

Sweet v. State, 624 So.2d 1138, 1139 (Fla. 1993) ("Sweet I").

Sweet's conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. Sweet I. Sweet then filed a motion for post-conviction relief in the state trial court. The motion was denied, and the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed on January 31, 2002. Sweet v. State, 810 So.2d 854 (Fla. 2002) ("Sweet II"). While the appeal of his state post-conviction motion was pending, Sweet petitioned the Supreme Court of Florida for a writ of habeas corpus. That petition also was denied on June 13, 2002. Sweet v. Moore, 822 So.2d 1269 (Fla.2002) ("Sweet III").

On May 8, 2003, Sweet filed a second motion for post-conviction relief in the state trial court, this time raising a claim arising under Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). The trial court denied the motion, concluding that the motion was "untimely and facially insufficient. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.851(d)(1); 3.851(e)(1)(E); 3.851(e)(2)(A); 3.851(e)(2)(B) (2000)." Moreover, the state trial court held, even assuming, arguendo, that Sweet's motion was timely and sufficient, on the merits the motion had to be denied because the Supreme Court of Florida had already rejected this claim in other cases. The Supreme Court of Florida summarily affirmed the dismissal of Sweet's motion for relief. Sweet v. State, No. SC04-514, 900 So.2d 555, 2004 Fla. LEXIS 2451 (Fla. Dec. 20, 2004). The state's highest court released its opinion on December 20, 2004, and the mandate issued on April 11, 2005.

Sweet then filed the instant petition for habeas relief in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on January 18, 2005. The district court concluded that the petition was barred by the one-year statute of limitations found in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d). Sweet's one-year period to file a federal habeas petition had expired on June 14, 2003, and his state Ring motion did not toll that period because it was not properly filed in the state court. We issued a certificate of appealability to consider the district court's timeliness ruling, and now review it de novo. Steed v. Head, 219 F.3d 1298, 1300 (11th Cir.2000).

II.

The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d), imposes a one-year period of limitation on federal habeas petitions filed by state prisoners:

(d)(1) A 1-year period of limitation shall apply to an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court. The limitation period shall run from the latest of —

(A) the date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review;

(B) the date on which the impediment to filing an application created by State action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States is removed, if the applicant was prevented from filing by such State action;

(C) the date on which the constitutional right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if the right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review; or

(D) the date on which the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.

(2) 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.

28 U.S.C. § 2244(d). Sweet's conviction became final before April 24, 1996, the day AEDPA became effective. Accordingly, absent any tolling, Sweet had until April 23, 1997, to file a federal habeas petition. Siebert v. Campbell, 334 F.3d 1018, 1021 (11th Cir.2003).

However, Sweet's one-year federal period was tolled because he had a state application for post-conviction relief pending on April 24, 1996. Indeed, the parties agree, correctly we believe, that Sweet had "properly filed" applications for post-conviction relief continuously pending in the Florida courts until June 13, 2002, when the Supreme Court of Florida finally denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Thus, Sweet's one-year period began to run on June 14, 2002, and, absent any further tolling, it expired on June 14, 2003.

Sweet maintains that his one-year federal period was again tolled on May 8, 2003, when, with 37 days remaining on the federal clock, he filed his second motion for post-conviction relief, pursuant to Ring, in the state trial court. That motion was pending until April 11, 2005, when the Supreme Court of Florida issued the mandate affirming the trial court's dismissal. See Nyland v. Moore, 216 F.3d 1264, 1267 (11th Cir.2000) (noting that in Florida, a post-conviction motion is pending until the appellate court issues its mandate). Thus, if Sweet were correct in arguing that the one-year period was tolled by the state Ring motion, the federal petition he filed on January 18, 2005, would be timely. But, because we agree with the district court that the Ring motion of May 8, 2003, was not "properly filed," it did not toll the one-year period of limitation, and Sweet's petition for habeas relief in the district court was more than 19 months late.

This much is clear: an application for state post-conviction or other collateral review tolls the federal period of limitation only if it was "properly filed." 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2). The statute provides no further definition of the term "properly filed," but the Supreme Court has had several occasions to construe those words. First, in Artuz v. Bennett, the Court considered whether a state habeas petition was "properly filed" when the claims it had raised were subject to two independent procedural bars under state law. 531 U.S. 4, 121 S.Ct. 361, 148 L.Ed.2d 213 (2000). The Court explained the meaning of the term "properly filed" this way:

An application is "filed," as that term is commonly understood, when it is delivered to, and accepted by, the appropriate court officer for placement into the official record. And an application is "properly filed" when its delivery and acceptance are in compliance with the applicable laws and rules governing filings. These usually prescribe, for example, the form of the document, the time limits upon its delivery, the court and office in which it must be lodged, and the requisite filing fee.

Id. at 8, 121 S.Ct. 361 (citations and footnote omitted). The Court distinguished between two basic concepts — whether an application had been "properly filed" and whether the claims contained in that application were meritorious and free of...