Opinion ID: 775311
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timeliness; Applicability of AEDPA

Text: 20 The enactment of Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub. L. No. 104-132, created a tumultuous sea change in federal habeas review, especially affecting the petitions of state prisoners. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 402-10, 146 L. Ed. 2d 389, 120 S. Ct. 1495 (2000) (O'Connor, J., writing for the majority with respect to part II); Lainfiesta v. Artuz, 253 F.3d 151, 155 (2d Cir. 2001). Nevertheless, the parties--both below and in this Court--have proceeded with Olympian indifference to this five-year old statute. 21 Among other things, AEDPA established a statute of limitations on habeas filings: one year, running from the date the petitioner's conviction became final (unless the petition relies on new Supreme Court case law or unavoidably undiscovered facts). 28 U.S.C. 2244(d)(1)(A). Aparicio's conviction became final in December 1994, when his petition for leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was denied. Thus, when AEDPA became effective on April 24, 1996, the statute of limitations on Aparicio's habeas claims had, on its face, already run. Undaunted, Aparicio filed his habeas petition exactly one year later, on April 24, 1997. 22 In an unrelated case, this Court sensed the palpable injustice of AEDPA's suddenly slamming the door on countless unfiled habeas claims. We therefore created a one-year grace period, running from AEDPA's effective date. Ross v. Artuz, 150 F.3d 97, 103 (2d Cir. 1998). Filing his petition on April 24, 1997, the first anniversary of AEDPA, Aparicio eked into the grace period. Although his petition is thus timely, he remains subject to the arcane jurisprudence of habeas corpus and AEDPA, particularly to that statute's more deferential standard of review of state court determinations of prisoners' constitutional claims. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 327-29, 138 L. Ed. 2d 481, 117 S. Ct. 2059 (1997) (finding that AEDPA's amendments to 2253, 2254 & 2255 applied to cases filed after the effective date); Loliscio v. Goord, 263 F.3d 178, 183-85 (2d Cir. Aug. 30, 2001) (applying AEDPA standards to 2254 petition timely filed after AEDPA's effective date, but within Ross v. Artuz grace period). 23