Opinion ID: 204676
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statute of Limitations Trigger Date

Text: The one-year limitations period of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1), applies to the filing of a § 2241 petition. See Dulworth v. Evans, 442 F.3d 1265, 1268 (10th Cir. 2006). Relevant here is subsection (d)(1)(D) which says the statute of limitations shall run from “the date on which the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.” 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(D). The district court first determined Titsworth’s claim arose on March 4, 2005, when he received the form advising he was not eligible for enhanced credits due to his conviction in 84-51. But in his motion to alter or amend judgment, Titsworth denied having received the form and there is no definitive evidence showing it was sent to him. The district court did not hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve the issue. Instead, it relied on Titsworth’s receipt of monthly time sheets. Consequently, we draw no inference of notice (adverse to Titsworth) from the March 4, 2005 form. The district court concluded the monthly time sheets notified Titsworth he was not receiving enhanced credits to his sentence. Titsworth does not agree, arguing an inmate, like himself, who is unaware of the prison’s enhanced credit policy would not realize from the time sheets that he was not receiving enhanced credits. The only time sheet in the record—the July 2005 time sheet—shows Titsworth earned 33 credits that month. [Vol. I at 60] It does not indicate whether or not they are enhanced credits. But Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 57 § 138 clearly provides that had Titsworth been eligible for enhanced credits, he would have received 45 or 60 credits. See supra n.4. Titsworth had access to - 10 - this statute via the prison’s law library, see http://www.doc.state.ok.us/offtech/toc03.htm (Attachment A to OP-030115). Therefore, we decline to excuse his failure to exhaust based on his alleged lack of knowledge of the policy. In any event, Titsworth’s § 2241 petition is untimely for another reason. See Smith v. Ingersoll-Rand Co., 214 F.3d 1235, 1248 (10th Cir. 2000) (“We are free to affirm the rulings of a district court on any ground that finds support in the record, even where the lower court reached its conclusions from a different or even erroneous course of reasoning.”) (quotations omitted). By his own admission, Titsworth learned of the ODOC’s enhanced credit policy and the fact he was not receiving enhanced credits due to his conviction in 84-51 in February 2006. Yet, he did not file his § 2241 petition until October 21, 2009, well past the one-year deadline.