Valdez v. Montgomery, No. 16-56845 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of a habeas petition as untimely under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). The panel rejected petitioner's contention that he waited to file his second state habeas petition until the California Supreme Court decided People v. Elizalde, 351 P.3d 1010 (Cal. 2015). The court also rejected petitioner's alternative contention that his delay was reasonable because of the size of the state court record and complexity of the case. The panel held that the district court correctly concluded that petitioner was not entitled to statutory tolling for the period following the California Superior Court's denial of his first state habeas petition. Finally, the district court did not err by not ordering the state to respond and lodge the state-court record.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of California state prisoner Martin Leyva Valdez, Jr.’s federal habeas petition as untimely under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The parties agreed that the petition was untimely unless the statute of limitations was tolled from May 15, 2014— when the California Superior Court denied Valdez’s first state habeas petition—until April 29, 2015—when Valdez filed his second state habeas petition in the California Court of Appeal. Because the question of whether Valdez’s second state habeas petition was timely filed in the Court of Appeal is an entirely distinct issue from whether his habeas petition in the Superior Court was timely filed, the panel held that the “look through” doctrine cannot answer whether the second state habeas petition was timely. The panel held that Valdez is not entitled to statutory tolling. Because Valdez filed his second state habeas petition before the California Supreme Court decided People v. Elizalde, 351 P.3d 1010 (Cal. 2015), the panel rejected his contention that he can establish good cause for the delay by waiting until Elizalde was decided. The panel likewise rejected Valdez’s contention that the size of the state-court
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