Court Opinion

ID: 9493294
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:03:40.621956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:45.610451
License: Public Domain

*690KING, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I must agree that the scheme now encompassed in section 2255 does not permit the tolling of the period of limitations during the pendency of a motion for new trial, and I also agree that the facts underlying Prescott’s appeal do not permit the equitable tolling of the limitations period here. I write separately only to highlight a few issues created by the statute as it now stands.
Among other things, section 2255, as amended by AEDPA, encourages the filing of parallel petitions for collateral relief in certain circumstances. That is, a prisoner in Prescott’s position must file a section 2255 motion even when another collateral challenge — including a motion for new trial- — is already pending. If a prisoner waits until all pending motions have been resolved before filing for relief under section 2255, he risks a statute of limitations bar; such a scheme is plainly antithetical to the interests of judicial efficiency, leaving district courts to manage a new collateral challenge while one collateral challenge is pending. By contrast, Congress sought to prevent the consideration of parallel petitions for collateral relief when a state-convicted prisoner seeks federal habeas corpus relief,* and we have recognized that the exhaustion and tolling provisions employed in the section 2244(d)(2) circumstance serve not only the interests of comity, but also the interests of judicial efficiency. See Yeatts v. Angelone, 166 F.3d 255, 261 (4th Cir.1999). I am at a loss to explain why Congress would not have similarly insured that, in the section 2255 context, (1) other collateral challenges were resolved before a section 2255 challenge, and (2) the time limitations under section 2255 were tolled during the pendency of other collateral challenges.
I agree with Judge Trader that district courts should consolidate motions for collateral relief when possible. See ante at 688-89. In that regard, another option for the district courts is the approach adopted by the Seventh Circuit in O’Connor v. United States, 133 F.3d 548, 550 (7th Cir.1998). There, the Seventh Circuit provided that when a district court receives a motion for new trial, it must ask the prisoner whether he intends to file a section 2255 motion. If the prisoner intends to do so, the district court is to delay consideration of the Rule 33 motion until it has received the section 2255 petition, permitting the district court to consider all of the collateral challenges at once. This solution would also help to prevent default by prisoners: by asking whether the prisoner intends to file a section 2255 petition, the district court indicates to the prisoner— who, having pinned his hopes on one collateral challenge, might not have realized that the clock is ticking on his section 2255 challenge — that he should proceed with the section 2255 petition. Id. at 551 (“Any other course fractures the case into slivers, jeopardizes the defendant’s opportunity for one complete collateral attack, or both.”). The approach of the Seventh Circuit has obvious merit, and, among other things, it promotes judicial efficiency by encouraging the resolution of collateral challenges together.
Congressional drafting and applicable circuit precedent operate to prevent relief for Prescott in this case, and for that reason I concur in the opinion of my friend Judge Traxler. However, I would suggest that Congress take note of these issues and undertake to remedy them.

 See 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2) ("The time during which a properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to the pertinent judgment or claim is pending shall not be counted toward any period of limitation under this subsection.”).