Edwards

MEMORANDUM **

A California jury found Anthony Anniversary Edwards guilty of first degree *516 murder, second degree robbery, and accessory after the fact to murder. The jury also made special circumstances findings that Edwards committed the murder while engaged in the commission of a robbery, and that he personally used a firearm in the commission of murder. Edwards objected to an error in the trial court’s jury instructions regarding the robbery-murder special circumstances. The California appellate court, and the federal district court on habeas, both deemed the error harmless. Fifty-five days after the district court denied the habeas corpus petition, Edwards submitted a motion for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal. Edwards did not serve a copy of this document to opposing parties. The district court granted the motion ex parte.

An appeal from the denial of a habeas petition is considered a “civil” matter and is thus subject to the time limitations set forth in Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. 1 Malone v. Avenenti, 850 F.2d 569, 571 (9th Cir.1988). A timely notice of appeal is “mandatory and jurisdictional.” Browder v. Dir., Dep’t of Corr.,…