Roberts

We must decide whether a habeas petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine whether his asserted mental incompetence warrants equitable tolling of the one-year statute of limitations provided by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

I

Rodney Ray Roberts pled guilty to second degree murder in California Superior Court on June 26, 2002, and was sentenced to fifteen years’ to life imprisonment. Roberts did not appeal his conviction, but constructively filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on November 18, 2002, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The Superior Court denied the petition on December 4, 2002. On June 17, 2004, Roberts filed, in the California Court of Appeal, a motion that the court construed as an application for leave to file a belated notice of appeal. The court denied the application on July 15, 2004.

Roberts constructively filed a second habeas petition in the Los Angeles Superior Court on January 18, 2006, which was denied on the same day. On August 14, 2006, Roberts filed a habeas petition in the California Court of Appeal, which was denied on August…