Court Opinion

ID: 9817944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 05:03:17.543647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:09.507803
License: Public Domain

ED CANNES, Chief Judge:
I concur in the opinion of the Court and write separately to add one note. I agree with Judge Martin that it is regrettable that Banks’ federal habeas petition was not filed in a timely fashion. We issued an opinion earlier this year in another missed deadline capital case from the same district in which we discussed possible ways to ensure timely filings in Florida capital cases. See Lugo v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t Corr., 750 F.3d 1198, 1215 (11th Cir.2014). We were of the view that the best way probably would be to establish a capital habeas unit in Florida, the only state in our circuit that did not have one at the time. See id.; see also id. at 1221-22 (Martin, J., concurring). Fortunately, since then a capital habeas unit has been approved and is currently being established in the Northern District of Florida, a development which should help prevent the untimely filing problem from recurring in the future.