Luna v. Kernan, No. 12-17332 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseAppellant, a California state prisoner serving a life sentence for first-degree murder and attempted robbery, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court more than six years after the statutory filing deadline had passed. Appellant sought equitable tolling on the basis of his previous counsel’s handling of the case. The district court dismissed the habeas petition as time-barred, concluding that Appellant had not met his burden of proving entitlement to equitable tolling. The Fourth Circuit vacated the district court’s judgment dismissing Appellant’s federal habeas petition, holding (1) this Court’s cases holding that egregious attorney misconduct may serve as a basis for equitable tolling, even if the misconduct falls short of abandonment, remain good law; and (2) the professional misconduct of Appellant’s former counsel constituted an extraordinary circumstance, and that misconduct prevented Appellant from filing his federal habeas petition on time. Remanded for a determination of whether Appellant diligently pursued his rights through the date of filing.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel vacated the district court’s judgment dismissing as time-barred a state prisoner’s federal habeas petition and remanded in a case in which the prisoner contends that his lawyer’s misconduct provides a basis for equitable tolling of the statute of limitations. The panel held that the prisoner’s counsel’s actions represent egregious professional misconduct amounting to an extraordinary circumstance that prevented the prisoner from filing his federal habeas petition on time, where counsel voluntarily dismissed for no good reason the prisoner’s pro se habeas petition containing exhausted and unexhausted claims, misled the prisoner to believe that a fully exhausted federal petition would be filed “shortly,” missed the one-year deadline for filing a new petition, and led the prisoner to believe for another six-plus years that litigation of his federal petition was moving toward a hearing on the merits. The panel wrote that this court’s cases holding that egregious attorney misconduct may serve as a basis for equitable tolling, even if the misconduct falls short of abandonment, remain good law. The panel remanded for the district court to determine in the first instance, after conducting an evidentiary hearing if necessary, whether the prisoner diligently pursued his rights through the date of filing. LUNA V. KERNAN 3
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