Romero

ORDER RE: MOTION TO DISMISS AND FURTHER PROCEEDINGS

Raymond Romero, an inmate at Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, California, filed a federal habeas petition, raising nine grounds for why his September 18, 1995, conviction for burglarizing a home and his resulting thirty-five year sentence violates the United States Constitution. Respondent has moved to dismiss the petition as time-barred and for including unexhausted claims.

Whether the present petition is time-barred turns on whether Romero was “properly pursuing his state post-conviction remedies” during the fifteen-month gap between the disposition of his habeas petition before the California Court of Appeals and the filing of a successive petition in the California Supreme Court. If so, then the petition was timely-filed. If not, the one-year limitation period for state prisoners to file their federal habeas petitions will likely bar consideration of the instant petition.

Romero’s direct efforts at overturning his conviction were completed on July 30, 1997, when the California Supreme Court denied his petition for review “without prejudice to filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the sentencing court.”…