Daniel Chestang v. D. Sisto

MEMORANDUM

In 1993, Petitioner-Appellant Daniel K. Chestang pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Marlena Brooks and Sydney Newman in Sacramento, California. In 1994, he was sentenced to 60 years to life. Chestang argues that a 1993 psychological report and a 2004 declaration from his co-defendant confessing to the murders establish his actual innocence, thereby making his 2007 federal habeas petition timely under McQuiggin v. Perkins, 569 U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1924 , 185 L.Ed.2d 1019 (2013) and Lee v. Lampert, 653 F.3d 929 (9th Cir.2011) (en banc). We have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and we affirm the district court’s dismissal of Chestang’s habeas petition as untimely.

1. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241-2255 , requires a prisoner to file his federal habeas petition within one year of the date the judgment against him becomes final. See 28 U.S.C. § 2244 (d)(1)(A). For prisoners whose judgments become final before AEDPA became effective on April 24, 1996, the limitations period commenced on that date and expired, absent tolling, on April 24, 1997. Gaston v. Palmer, 417 F.3d 1030, 1033…