Rusty Rogers v. Mike Ferriter

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), state prisoners must file federal petitions for habeas corpus within one year of the date on which the challenged conviction becomes final. 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (d)(1). That limitations period is tolled while a petitioner’s “properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to the pertinent judgment or claim is pending.” Id. § 2244(d)(2). The dispos-itive issue in this case is whether a Montana prisoner’s application for review of his sentence was “pending” during the time that the Sentence Review Division of the Montana Supreme Court held it in abeyance so he could seek other state collateral review. We hold that it was.

I. Background

A. Collateral Review in Montana

This case arises out of Montana’s dual-track system for collateral review of criminal sentences. On one track, Montana permits prisoners to seek post-conviction collateral relief — typically referred to as “post-conviction relief’ — from both the conviction and sentence. Mont.Code Ann. § 46-21-101. The state district court that imposed a criminal sentence has the power “to vacate, set aside, or correct…