Supreme Court Report

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Michael J. McGowan v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 18-97 · judgment April 27, 2020

Certiorari denied · October 5, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 4%–10%)

Before the decision, about 1.6× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Second Circuit decision below, a petition filed soon after the judgment below, and counsel who has filed here before.

Question presented

Whether Petitioner, a mentally ill prisoner serving a 110-year prison sentence, whose appellate counsel led him to believe that no further legal challenges to that sentence were possible following conclusion of direct review, and who filed a pro se motion to vacate, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, with reasonable diligence after learning of the availability of that vehicle, demonstrated the requisite “diligence” and “extraordinary circumstances” to warrant equitable tolling, such that this Court should remand to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with instructions to issue a certificate of appealability?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Dallas Craig Hughes

For respondent
Jeffrey B. Wall
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Case

Subject area
Criminal Procedure (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, October 5, 2020 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. Oct 05 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 29 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2020.
  3. Jul 22 2020
    Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
  4. Jul 14 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 17, 2020)