Appeal
from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 4:14-cv-00062-MW-GRJ
Before
WILSON and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges, and HALL, [*] District Judge.
WILSON, Circuit Judge
Michael
Rogers argues, and the Secretary of the Florida Department of
Corrections disputes, that Rogers's motion under Rule
3.800(c), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, tolled the
time in which he could petition for federal habeas relief.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2), this time is tolled during
the pendency of a state prisoner's application for
"collateral review." The Supreme Court defines
"collateral review" as any "judicial
reexamination of a judgment or claim in a proceeding outside
of the direct review process." Wall v. Kholi,
562 U.S. 545, 553, 131 S.Ct. 1278, 1285 (2011). Because a
Rule 3.800(c) motion is an application for such judicial
reexamination, we hold that Rogers's motion tolled the
time in which he could petition for federal habeas relief. We
reverse the district court's dismissal of Rogers's
petition and remand for further proceedings.
I.
Rogers
was convicted of sexual battery on a minor under the age of
12 and sentenced, among other things, to life imprisonment.
The conviction and sentence became final on May 12, 2010. On
June 23, 2010, Rogers moved to reduce his sentence under Rule
3.800(c), which grants a Florida trial court the discretion
to reduce a sentence after an appellate court's
affirmation of the legality of the sentence. The denial of
the motion became final on August 9, 2011. On October 28,
2011, Rogers moved under Rule 3.850, challenging the trial
court's jurisdiction over his criminal case. The denial
of the motion became final on August 5, 2013.
On
January 31, 2014, Rogers petitioned for federal habeas relief
under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The Secretary of the Florida
Department of Corrections moved to dismiss the petition for,
among other reasons, untimeliness. The Secretary argued that
the one-year limitations period in which Rogers could
petition for federal habeas relief expired on July 27, 2011,
and that Rogers's Rule 3.800(c) motion failed to toll
this limitations period. Neither party disputed the tolling
effect of a Rule 3.850 motion. Thus, the parties agreed that,
if the Rule 3.800(c) motion tolled the limitations period,
the federal habeas petition was timely and that, if the
motion did not, the petition was untimely.
Recommending
that the district court grant the Secretary's motion to
dismiss, a magistrate judge stated, among other reasons, that
the Rule 3.800(c) motion failed to toll the limitations
period. The district court adopted the recommendation,
granted the motion, and dismissed the federal habeas
petition. Rogers appealed, and this court granted a
certificate of appealability on one issue: "Whether
Rogers's habeas petition was untimely under [§
2244(d)(2)]."
II.
Under
§ 2244(d)(2), a state prisoner can toll the one-year
limitations period for a federal habeas petition by applying
for "collateral review" in state court:
The time during which a properly filed application for State
post-conviction or other collateral review with respect to
the pertinent judgment or claim is pending shall not be
counted toward any period of limitation under this
subsection.
The
parties dispute whether a Florida prisoner's Rule
3.800(c) motion to reduce a sentence is an application for
collateral review. Rule 3.800 states:
(a) Correction. . . . A court may at any time correct an
illegal sentence ...