In Spottsville v. Terry, No. 05-12656 (Feb. 1, 2007), the Court held that a habeas petitioner had been misled by a written order of a court as to his filing deadline and was therefore entitled to equitable tolling of his habeas petition.
While incarcerated in Georgia and seeking post-conviction relief, Spottsville was given incorrect instructions by a state court as to where to file a petition seeking appellate relief. As a result, his petition was dismissed in the Georgia courts. Further, once Spottsville filed for federal habeas relief, the time period for filing the petition had lapsed, because his case was not "properly filed" in Georgia courts during the relevant time period.
The Court held that although Spottsville’s federal habeas petition was time-barred under the AEDPA, the doctrine of "equitable tolling" applied, because the untimeliness of the federal habeas petition was due to the misleading order the Georgia state court. The Court therefore reversed the dismissal of the petition.
