In Rainey v. Secretary for Dep’t of Corrections, No. 04-13282 (March 29, 2006), the Court affirmed the denial of a § 2254 habeas petition as time-barred under the one-year limitations period of AEDPA.
The defendant’s federal habeas petition was filed within one year of his state resentencing, but more than one year after his original judgment of conviction became final. The habeas petition, however, challenged only the original conviction, not the resentencing. The Court held that the applicable one-year period began to run from the date of the original judgment because the petition only challenged the original judgment. For purposes of Rainey’s petition, the relevant judgment became "final"on the date the original conviction became final, without regard to the subsequent resentencing.
The Court rejected the argument that equitable tolling should apply to the period during which a post-conviction motion was pending before being dismissed for failure to comply with Florida’s oath requirement. The Court noted that Rainey let the motion sit unaddressed for seven months. He did not demonstrate the "extraordinary" circumstances which justify a finding of equitable tolling.
