Opinion ID: 3028512
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Submission of new materials

Text: McAleese next argues that even if the denial of the parole and not the disclosure of the documents constituted the “factual predicate” of his claims, the limitations period should not have begun to run until the PBPP last denied him parole in 2001 and not when it first denied him parole in 1995. McAleese predicates this contention on the fact that the PBPP received additional correspondence from the district attorney after the 1995 denial on which, according to him, the PBPP relied in denying him parole in 2000 and 2001. The additional documents to which McAleese points were attached to the letter dated August 16, 2000, from the district attorney to the PBPP, disclosed with respondents’ answer to McAleese’s restated Eastern District petition to which we have referred: (1) an anonymous letter postmarked July 14, 2000, to the president of the Fraternal Order of Police recommending favorable treatment towards him with respect to the Santiago retrial,16 and (2) a federal civil rights complaint dated January 12, 1999, that he filed against the PBPP and the district attorney making allegations similar to those he asserted in the habeas corpus petition before us now. We reject this argument. McAleese filed his habeas corpus petition on March 2, 1998. Clearly, the “factual predicate” of his claims asserted in 1998 cannot be the subsequent parole denials in 2000 and 2001 regardless of when the documents on which he relies were sent to the PBPP. This is chronologically impossible. To circumvent this impossibility, McAleese contends that the repeated denials of parole constitute a “continuing violation” of his rights, and that we, accordingly, should regard the most recent parole denial in 2001 as the event that triggered 16 The district attorney contends that McAleese actually wrote this anonymous letter, though it was supposedly from a police officer. 19 the running of the statute of limitations.17 This theory is misplaced. First, he does not point to any case in which we have applied the continuing violations theory in the context of tolling the limitations period in habeas corpus cases in a way that would extend the habeas corpus petition timeliness requirements in contravention of Congress’s emphasis on the finality of convictions in enacting the AEDPA. Second, even if we were to apply a continuing violations theory in the context of habeas corpus petitions, the successive denials of McAleese’s parole applications would not constitute “continuing violations.” Under the continuing violations theory, a plaintiff may pursue a claim for conduct that standing alone would have been untimely as it occurred before the start of the applicable statute of limitations filing period as measured back from the time of the filing of the action. The application of the continuing violations theory may be appropriate in cases in which a plaintiff can demonstrate that the defendant’s allegedly wrongful conduct was part of a practice or pattern of conduct in which he engaged both without and within the limitations period. See, e.g., West v. Philadelphia Elec. Co., 45 F.3d 744, 754 (3d Cir. 1995). “To establish that a claim falls 17 As we already have noted, the PBPP denied McAleese parole for the third time on October 30, 2001, and on June 20, 2002, he filed his restated habeas corpus petition in the Eastern District pursuant to that court’s directions. This time sequence could have opened the possibility that McAleese’s petition was timely if it challenged the October 30, 2001 parole denial standing alone even if it also challenged the original 1995 parole denial. We, however, reject this possibility because McAleese in his June 20, 2002 submission did not state that he was making a stand-alone challenge to the October 30, 2001 parole denial. Moreover, respondents in their brief on this appeal indicate that “[t]he decision denying parole which the petition challenges is dated September 2, 1995 . . . .” Appellees’ br. at 6. In his reply brief McAleese does not say that that statement was incorrect, though he does contend “that the content of the district attorney’s letters” as well as the additional correspondence to which we referred above “were used to deny [him] parole in 2000 and 2001, and thus [his] claim was timely filed.” Appellant’s reply br. at 8. But, of course, that contention was consistent with his continuing violation argument and, indeed, was its essence. 20 within the continuing violations theory, a plaintiff must do two things”: (1) “he must demonstrate that at least one act occurred within the filing period[,]” and (2) he must establish that the conduct is “more than the occurrence of isolated or sporadic acts,” i.e., the conduct must be “a persistent, on-going pattern.” Id. at 754-55 (internal quotation marks omitted). In this case, McAleese’s petition was subject to a oneyear filing period under the AEDPA measured from April 24, 1996, until April 23, 1997.18 Consequently, inasmuch as McAleese filed his habeas corpus petition on March 2, 1998, the 2000 and 2001 parole denials occurred after the close of the limitations period with respect to the time for a challenge to the original parole denial on September 2, 1995, and they could not save any claim that he might have had with respect to that denial. The actual effect of accepting McAleese’s argument would be to revive his barred claim challenging the 1995 parole denial, something we will not do. In this regard, we reiterate that McAleese has not instituted separate habeas corpus proceedings with respect to the denial of his parole applications in 2000 and 2001 and thus this case does not involve any act within the filing period for, as we have explained, the factual predicate of McAleese’s claims was the 1995 determination by the PBPP to deny him parole allegedly to coerce his testimony in the Santiago case and to require him to participate in the sex offender program.19 We also point out that it is clear that the three parole denials over the six-year period from 1995 to 2001 are “isolated or sporadic acts” and not “a persistent on-going pattern.” Therefore, in accord with our recent discussion in O’Connor v. 18 We are not concerned with any limitations period that predated the enactment of the AEDPA even though the parole denial on September 2, 1995, was before its enactment. 19 We express no opinion as to whether the restrictions on filing second or successive habeas corpus claims in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) might have been applicable if McAleese filed or sought permission from us to file a petition challenging the 2000 and 2001 parole denials. 21 City of Newark, 440 F.3d 125, 127 (3d Cir. 2006), and in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in National R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101, 122 S.Ct. 2061 (2002), challenges to these “discrete acts” of parole denial were required to have been made within the applicable limitations periods with respect to each act. Accordingly, because the challenge to the September 2, 1995 parole denial was not raised within the applicable period, it was untimely. A conclusion that each denial of parole was a discrete act is unavoidable in that Morgan indicated that “termination, failure to promote, denial of transfer, or refusal to hire” are discrete acts. Id. at 114, 122 S.Ct. at 2073. Denial of parole and a direction that petitioner participate in a sex offender program are no less discrete.