Eduardo Hernandez v. Marion Spearman

Petitioner Eduardo Hernandez’s federal habeas corpus petition was dismissed as untimely after the district court refused to apply the “prison mailbox” rule to calculate the dates of Hernandez’s filings. The district court found the rule inapplicable because a prisoner other than Hernandez delivered the petition to prison authorities for mailing to the clerk of court. We hold that the prison mailbox rule applies to such a circumstance and, accordingly, reverse the dismissal of Hernandez’s petition.

I.

Hernandez, a California prisoner, is serving two indeterminate life terms and eighteen years for grand theft and kidnapping in connection with a carjacking. After unsuccessfully seeking post-conviction relief in state court, he filed a pro se federal habeas corpus petition. The Warden moved to dismiss Hernandez’s petition as untimely, alleging that it was filed outside the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act’s (“AEDPA”) one-year filing deadline. See 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (d)(1).

A magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation, which agreed that the petition was untimely. First, in the instances in which a prisoner other than Hernandez had delivered Hernandez’s…