San Francisco Judge denies two Habeas Corpus Petitions due to statutory tolling

On Thursday, Judge William Aslup denied a pair of prisoner habeas corpus petitions, ending the appeals process for those prisoners.  In both cases the statute of limitations for filing a habeas petition had lapsed.

In Dowdy v. Curry, the prisoner was convicted for robbery, a third felony and received thirty-two years in prison.    He argued that, although he missed the deadline for a federal habeas petition, he suffered from severe mental illness and needed another prisoner to assist him in preparing forms for this petition.  The judge noted that he filed a state habeas petition in 2005 and was lucent to complete similar paperwork at that time.  Accordingly, the petition was dismissed for being untimely.

In Sanger v. Yates, the prisoner plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000.  Interestingly, he only challenged the imposition of the fine.  He argued that, although he missed the statute, the limitations period does not apply to the restitution part of his sentence.  The court noted that the limitation applies to every part of a non-capital sentence and therefore dismissed the petition for being untimely.