Julius Robinson v. G. Lewis

ORDER

We ask the California Supreme Court to resolve an important question of state law that the Ninth Circuit has long struggled to answer, a struggle that absorbs appellate and district court resources and frustrates state prisoners. The question is: when is a state prisoner’s petition for a writ of state habeas corpus in a non-capital case timely filed in a California court? Without the California Supreme Court’s guidance on this issue, federal courts lack the means to máke a correct determination of whether a state habeas petition was properly filed, and thus whether its filing tolls the federal statute of limitations for filing a federal habeas petition. Accordingly, pursuant to Rule 8.548 of the California Rules of Court, we certify the following question to the California Supreme Court:

Our phrasing of this question should not restrict the Court’s consideration of the issues involved. The Court may rephrase the question as it sees fit in order to address the contentions of the parties. If the Court agrees to decide this question, we agree to accept its decision. We recognize that our certification request adds to the substantial caseload of the Court, and we submit this…