Opinion ID: 220788
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The R & R and the District Court's Ruling

Text: As noted earlier, the District Court adopted the Magistrate Judge's R & R, which denied Pabon's habeas petition as untimely. Under AEDPA, a prisoner has one year from the date a state court conviction becomes final, not including the time during which state post-conviction appeals are pending, to file an application for a writ of habeas corpus. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). Judgment becomes final at the conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review. Id. Pabon's conviction became final on August 12, 2002, when the time expired for seeking certiorari for direct review by the United States Supreme Court. See Kapral v. United States, 166 F.3d 565, 567 (3d Cir.1999). About nine months later (May 12, 2003), [17] statutory tolling of the limitations period began when Pabon filed his PCRA petition in the Court of Common Pleas. On August 8, 2006, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied allowance of appeal, ending the statutory tolling period. [18] As about nine months had passed before Pabon filed his PCRA petition, he had three months left before AEDPA's one-year filing deadline. His habeas petition was filed on September 20, 2007, well past the one-year mark. The R & R stated that Pabon does not allege circumstances which prevent him in some extraordinary way from filing a timely habeas petition. R & R at 7. It also stated that Pabon fails to allege circumstances indicating that he exercised reasonable diligence. Id. Pabon filed objections (handwritten by a fellow inmate) to the R & R. They were that: (1) timely filing of his habeas petition was unlawfully impeded by state action and AEDPA allows a habeas petition to be submitted up to one year after an unlawful impediment to filing created by state action has been lifted, see § 2244(d)(1)(B), so, he contends, his petition was timely under AEDPA; and/or (2) equitable tolling should apply. As to his second argument, he asserts that he should have been entitled to equitable tolling from September 7, 2006 (the date he initially requested legal assistance from a prison paralegal) to September 20, 2007 (the deemed filing date of his habeas petition) due to his inability to read, write, or understand English, the lack of Spanish-language legal materials in the prison's restricted housing unit (the RHU), and repeated denials of requests for legal or translation assistance. [19] The District Court concluded that there was no basis for equitable tolling of the statutory limitations period. In doing so, it did not hold an evidentiary hearing with respect to Pabon's language ability, his access to Spanish-language legal materials in prison, or how he may have been affected by his inability to obtain legal or translation assistance. As noted, Pabon appealed and we granted his application for a COA.