Jones v. The State of New York

Background

Devin Lee Jones filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 asking the federal court to review his state-court conviction. Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison recommended dismissing the petition as time barred. Jones, who was representing himself, filed objections, principally arguing that extraordinary circumstances justified extending the filing deadline.

The state court conviction was entered on October 15, 2010, and Jones was sentenced on January 7, 2011. The state appellate court affirmed the conviction on July 31, 2013, and the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal on September 17, 2014. Because Jones did not seek review in the United States Supreme Court, the federal court treated the conviction as final on December 16, 2014.

Federal filing deadline

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act generally gives a person one year to file a federal petition challenging a state conviction. The deadline can be paused while a properly filed state post-conviction application is pending. It can also be extended in limited circumstances when the petitioner diligently pursues the case and an extraordinary circumstance prevents timely filing.

Jones filed a motion to vacate the judgment on January 20, 2015, 35 days after the federal limitations period began. That motion paused the deadline. The motion was denied on April 16, 2015, and leave to appeal that denial was denied on August 10, 2015. The court concluded that Jones’s later request for permission to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was not a properly filed application because the order was not appealable under New York law. It therefore did not pause the deadline. The limitations period expired on July 6, 2016, but Jones did not file this petition until August 31, 2016.

Court’s analysis

The court reviewed the recommendation and found no error. It concluded that Jones’s objections repeated arguments already made in his petition and did not identify extraordinary circumstances that prevented timely filing. Jones cited depression and anxiety, worsened by his grandmothers’ illnesses and deaths in 2013 and 2016. The court agreed with Judge Davison that Jones’s ability to submit articulate and well-researched filings showed that those conditions had not prevented him from filing the petition on time.

The court also rejected Jones’s argument that actual innocence excused the late filing. It found that he had provided no new, credible, or compelling evidence establishing factual innocence.

Disposition

Judge Briccetti adopted Magistrate Judge Davison’s Report and Recommendation in its entirety and denied the petition. The Clerk was instructed to enter judgment and close the case. The court declined to issue a certificate of appealability because Jones had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.