In Ferreira v. Sec. Dept. of Corrections, No. 04-15761 (Aug. 7, 2007), the Court held that Burton v. Stewart, __U.S. __, 127 S.Ct. 793 (2007) effectively overruled Rainey v. Sec’y for the Dep’t of Corr., 443 F.3d 1323 (11th Cir. 2006), and therefore, on remand from the United States Supreme Court, it reinstated as timely Ferreira’s federal habeas petition.
Ferreira filed a federal habeas petition within the one-year statute of limitations after he had been resentenced on a state conviction, but after the expiration of the limitations period after the original judgment of conviction. The Court noted that the Supreme Court in Burton made clear that the limitations provisions of AEDPA are focused on the judgment which holds the petitioner in confinement. Therefore, the statute of limitations period begins to run from the date both the conviction and the sentence the petitioner is serving become final. Hence, Ferreira’s federal habeas petition was timely, because filed within the limitations period that followed his resentencing.
