Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Eugene Milton Clemons, II v. Jefferson S. Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 16-13020-P · judgment July 30, 2020
Certiorari denied · June 7, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability
Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.
Question presented
- Petitioner’s request for state post-conviction review was deemed filed three days late because of a series of errors by the court clerk, who: • incorrectly instructed Petitioner’s counsel that no filing fee was required; • stamped the submission “RECEIVED AND FILED,” thus representing to counsel that the petition was filed when it instead was neither filed nor even docketed; • immediately lost the petition; and • failed to comply with internal procedures that required notifying Petitioner of any filing deficiency. In a departure from the analysis employed by four other circuits—all of which review the totality of the circumstances—the Eleventh Circuit considered only a single fact (that counsel wrongly relied on filing fee information from the court clerk) and therefore declined to consider any of the clerk’s subsequent serial errors that prevented Petitioner from discovering the alleged filing error. As a result, the court refused to entertain any of Petitioner’s claims for relief (other than the claim under Atkins v. Virginia). This case thus presents the following question: Whether the availability of equitable tolling requires consideration of the totality of the circumstances, as held by the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Circuits, or whether the Court of Appeals below is correct that it can disregard altogether and not consider otherwise material facts simply because Petitioner was represented by counsel.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Linda T. Coberly
Winston & Strawn, LLP
For respondent
Henry Mitchell Johnson
Alabama Atty General
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Amicus briefs
4 cert-stage
Proceedings
- Jun 07 2021Petition DENIED.
- May 18 2021DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/3/2021.
- May 14 2021Reply of petitioner Eugene Milton Clemons II filed. (Distributed)
- Apr 28 2021Brief of respondents Jefferson S. Dunn, et al. in opposition filed.
- Mar 31 2021Brief amici curiae of Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, The National Association of Federal Defenders, The National Habeas Institute, Justice 360, The Cornell Death Penalty Project filed.
- Mar 31 2021Brief amicus curiae of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty filed.
- Mar 31 2021Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Social Workers filed.
- Mar 31 2021Brief amicus curiae of R Street Institute filed.
- Mar 17 2021Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Eugene Milton Clemons II
- Mar 16 2021Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including April 30, 2021.
- Mar 15 2021Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 31, 2021 to April 30, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
- Feb 24 2021Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 31, 2021)