Hall v. Covello
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:19-cv-08314
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 5
In Hall v. Covello, Judge Gilliam dismissed Hall’s federal habeas petition as untimely and denied equitable tolling and a certificate of appealability.
Elijah Matthew Hall’s federal challenge to his California conviction was rejected as untimely; Patrick Covello prevailed on the dismissal motion.
What happened
In Hall v. Covello, Elijah Matthew Hall challenged his California conviction in a federal petition filed under a law allowing state prisoners to seek federal review. Hall filed the petition on November 26, 2019, nearly six weeks after the one-year filing deadline had expired.
Patrick Covello asked the court to dismiss the petition as late. Hall did not oppose the motion. Hall argued that his participation in a mental-health program, severe depression, hearing voices, self-mutilation, limited education, lack of legal knowledge, and psychiatric treatment should extend the deadline.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. ruled that Hall had not shown these circumstances caused the late filing or made timely filing impossible. The court granted the motion to dismiss, denied the petition as untimely, denied a certificate of appealability, and directed the clerk to enter judgment for Covello and close the case.
The detailed version
- Hall v. Covello · No. 4:19-cv-08314
- Haywood Gilliam
- Sept. 28, 2020
Background
A Sonoma County jury found Hall guilty of first-degree robbery and battery causing serious bodily injury on March 26, 2013. The jury also found several enhancement allegations true, including great bodily injury, three prior felony convictions, and a prior prison term. On September 3, 2013, Hall received a sentence of 25 years to life plus a 13-year determinate term in state prison under California’s Three Strikes Law.
The California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment on March 27, 2018, and the California Supreme Court denied review on July 11, 2018. Hall did not file any state post-conviction collateral petitions. He filed this federal petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 on November 26, 2019.
Timeliness and Equitable Tolling
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a federal law that imposes a one-year deadline for most state prisoners seeking federal habeas review, generally starts the deadline when direct review ends. The court determined that Hall’s conviction became final on October 11, 2018, 90 days after the California Supreme Court denied review. The one-year deadline therefore expired on October 27, 2019.
The court considered whether equitable tolling could extend the deadline. Equitable tolling is an exception that may extend a filing deadline when a person pursued his rights diligently but an extraordinary circumstance prevented timely filing. Hall stated that he had been in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Enhanced Outpatient Program since 2015, suffered from severe depression, heard voices, engaged in self-mutilation, had a T.A.B.E. score of 6.6, lacked legal education, and was receiving psychiatric care and medication.
The court concluded that Hall had not shown that these circumstances caused his late filing or made timely filing impossible. The court noted that the alleged conditions still existed when Hall filed the federal petition, yet he was able to file it. The court also found that Hall had not shown that his mental impairment prevented him from understanding the need to file on time or from preparing and filing a habeas petition.
Disposition
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. granted Covello’s motion to dismiss the petition as untimely. The court denied the habeas petition as untimely, denied a certificate of appealability, directed the clerk to enter judgment in favor of Covello and close the file, and terminated the pending motion. The ruling was based on the filing deadline and did not decide the underlying challenges to Hall’s conviction.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.