Frank Huizar v. Tom Carey

Under the “prison mailbox rule” of Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266 , 108 S.Ct. 2379 , 101 L.Ed.2d 245 (1988), a prisoner’s federal habeas petition is deemed filed when he hands it over to prison authorities for mailing to the district court. We consider how the rule applies if the petition is never received or filed by the court.

Huizar is a California state prisoner convicted of first degree murder. On April 15, 1996, he gave prison officials a state court habeas petition for mailing to the Superior Court; the prison’s log of inmates’ outgoing mail confirms this. On June 19 of that same year, Huizar claims he wrote to the court asking about the petition, but he got no reply. Twenty-one months later, in March 1998, Huizar says he had his sister send a second copy of the petition by certified mail, but again heard nothing back. Huizar wrote another letter to the court on August 3, 1998, relating his attempts to file a petition and asking the court to look into the matter. The court finally responded in a letter dated September 3, 1998, explaining that Huizar’s petition had not been received. The petition was finally filed in the Superior Court on December 30, 1998, and denied on…