SCOTUS Case: Gonzales v. Thaler

Posted by Chelsea Starks in American Government - Laufenberg on

    1. Constitutional Question
      -  Was there jurisdiction to issue a certificate of appealability under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c) and to adjudicate Gonzalez's appeal?

      - Did the application for a writ of habeas corpus run out of time under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1) due to the date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review?

    2. Facts of the Case
      - Gonzalez was convicted of murder in Texas, June 14, 2005 in a 1995 shooting and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
      - It actually took them six years to indict him on that murder rap.
      - He filed for an appeal in the Texas intermediate court of appeals which was the same court that confirmed his conviction July 12, 2006.
      - Only problem with that was that his lawyer did not file a petition for another review of his case with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals within the 30-day time limit given by state law. 
      - Because that got messed up, on July 19th, 2007 Gonzalez filed in a Texas state court for the right to appeal. The courts denied his appeal on November 21, 2007.
      - So because of that, on January 24th, 2008, he filed another petition to appeal in the U.S District Court for the Northern DIstrict of Texas and now here he is trying to get his case heard for his right to appeal.

    3. Summary of the Arguments before the SCOTUS

      - Basically Gonzalez argues that if the Supreme Courts sides with the state courts, the time for petitioners will be running out before they legally get the right to actually appeal which is unacceptable and unjust. Also he argued that the courts denied his petition for appeal but  it took them a year to actually finalized his conviction.  With being said there is no way he could have filed for an appeal if they hadn't even finalized his sentence.

    4. Predictions on the outcome
      - I think that because they denied his claim based on a stupid technicality that he just might be granted the appeal on top of which the timing issue makes no sense the way it was handled so he's bound to get the appeal granted.

      Citations
      "Gonzalez v. Thaler | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law." The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | A Multimedia Archive of the Supreme Court of the United States. 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.

      Shay, Giovanna. "Argument Preview: Another Technical AEDPA Case Implicating State Postconviction and Counsel." SCOTUSblog. 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.

      Shay, Giovanna. "Gonzalez v. Thaler: Justices Focus on COA Issue." SCOTUSblog. 03 Nov. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. 

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