Opinion ID: 782172
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Weed Case

Text: 51 The procedural history of the Weed case is virtually identical. On October 11, 1988, Ford and Von Villas were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for killing Thomas Weed in violation of California Penal Code §§ 182, 187, 190.2(a)(1). After the jury deadlocked during the penalty phase of Ford's trial, the trial court sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole on the murder count and stayed a concurrent term of twenty-five years to life on the conspiracy count. 52 Ford appealed the judgment and, on November 16, 1992, the California Court of Appeal affirmed his convictions. On February 11, 1993, the California Supreme Court issued a summary denial of Ford's direct appeal. Ford filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which was denied on October 4, 1993. See Ford v. California, 510 U.S. 838, 114 S.Ct. 118, 126 L.Ed.2d 83 (1993). 53 On April 19, 1997, Ford signed and delivered to the prison authorities a pro se federal habeas corpus petition. His petition was forwarded to the clerk and filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on May 5, 1997. 4 Ford also filed a motion to stay the federal habeas corpus petition containing exhausted grounds while he exhausted the then-unexhausted state claims. As in the Loguercio case, the magistrate judge gave Ford the choice of either (1) dismissing the petition without prejudice and re-filing after exhaustion of the unexhausted claims or (2) dismissing the unexhausted claims and proceeding with only the exhausted claims. The magistrate issued an order, however, in which he stated that the district court did not have the discretion to stay a mixed petition so that the motion to stay the proceedings was denied. Additionally, the order stated that Ford was to notify the court within approximately two and one-half weeks if he wanted to waive the unexhausted claims and proceed only on the exhausted claims. Ford did not so notify the court. As a result, on September 9, 1997, the magistrate judge issued his report recommending that the district court dismiss his habeas petition without prejudice because it was a partially-exhausted petition under Rose, 455 U.S. at 522, 102 S.Ct. 1198. On October 14, 1997, the district court adopted the magistrate's report and dismissed Ford's petition, purportedly without prejudice. 54 On October 24, 1997, Ford filed a state habeas corpus petition in the California Supreme Court. The petition was summarily denied on March 25, 1998. Ford then returned to federal court and, on April 7, 1998, he filed a second pro se federal habeas corpus petition in the district court. 5 The state filed an answer to the petition on April 29, 1998 and then, on May 11, 1998, filed a motion to dismiss alleging that the petition was untimely under AEDPA's one-year statute of limitations. Ford filed an opposition to the motion to dismiss on May 27, 1998 and the state filed its reply on June 1, 1998. 55 On June 3, 1998, the magistrate judge issued his report recommending that Ford's petition be dismissed with prejudice as untimely. On June 23, 1998, Ford filed an objection to the magistrate's report. On June 30, 1998, the district judge adopted the magistrate's findings, conclusions, and recommendations and dismissed Ford's petition with prejudice. On July 27, 1998, Ford filed a notice of appeal and a motion for a COA. The district court denied the motion on August 3, 1998. Ford then filed a motion for a COA in this court.