Milam v. Harrington, No. 19-55213 (9th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit vacated the district court's dismissal of a petition for habeas corpus as time-barred. The panel held that the district court erred in its refusal to consider whether petitioner's claimed impairment was the cause of the untimeliness of the federal filing, despite his representation by state habeas counsel, and that the district court applied the wrong legal standard in evaluating whether state habeas counsel's misconduct supported equitable tolling. In this case, because the district court thought abandonment was required, it did not consider whether petitioner's state habeas counsel's misconduct qualified as an "extraordinary circumstance" under all the facts of this case. Accordingly, the panel remanded for the appropriate analysis.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel vacated the district court’s judgment dismissing California state prisoner Thomas Milam’s habeas corpus petition as untimely, and remanded for further proceedings. The panel held that the district court erred by categorically concluding that Milam’s retention of counsel meant that his claimed severe mental illness could not have been an extraordinary circumstance that prevented him from complying with AEDPA’s time limits. The panel explained that if Milam’s impairment prevented the monitoring of his state habeas lawyer, and if monitoring would have prevented state habeas counsel from waiting so long between filings, Milam’s impairment could have been a but-for cause of the untimely filing. The panel also held that the district court applied the wrong legal standard in evaluating whether state habeas counsel’s misconduct supported equitable tolling. Because the district court erroneously thought that true abandonment by counsel was required, it did not consider whether counsel’s misconduct qualified as an extraordinary circumstance under all the facts of the case. The panel remanded for the appropriate analysis. MILAM V. HARRINGTON 3
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