Can Lawyer Negligence Extend Habeas Filing Deadline?: Marcia Coyle of the National Law Review reports on Monday's Supreme Court argument discussing how bad a lawyer must be to warrant stopping the clock on the one-year time limit for filing a prisoner's federal habeas petition.  In Holland v. Florida, the Justices confronted two issues: whether the one-year deadline for filing habeas petitions under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act can be tolled for equitable reasons, and whether a lawyer's gross negligence is one of those reasons for halting the clock.  The issue stems from the death penalty conviction of Albert Holland in 1991.  After his conviction became final in 2001, Holland had 365 to file a federal habeas petition.  The state of Florida appointed Bradley Collins to represent him in state post-conviction proceedings and Collins filed a state post-conviction motion 351 days into the one-year federal state of limitations.  That motion stopped the clock on the one-year deadline, but the clock would resume moving once his post-conviction movement was denied, leaving him only 14 days in which to file the federal petition.  Collins ultimately missed that deadline.  Florida Solicitor General Scott Makar argued that federal rules may permit exceptions when there are problems with access to the courts, but he argued that Congress imposed the one-year limit in order to avoid the use of habeas petitions to delay finality of convictions and sentences.  The Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled on whether equitable tolling is available under AEDPA, but, eleven circuits have held it is available.  CJLF's brief is available here.

Dating Game Killer Enters Penalty Phase: The Associated Press reports the penalty phase of Rodney Alcala's trial will begin today.  Jurors last week convicted the 66-year-old of killing 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and four women in the late 1970s.  It is the third time he has been found guilty of killing Samsoe.  The previous convictions and death sentences were all overturned.  Alcala could be sentenced to death or life without parole.

"Nevada Supreme Court hears Mack plea for new trial": Reno Gazette-Journal writer Martha Bellisle reports the Nevada Supreme Court's hearings to grant a new trial to convicted killer Darren Mack.  Mack, convicted of killing his wife and shooting their divorce judge, may get a new trial because his lawyers allowed him to plead guilty without discussing defenses that would have meant a lighter sentence.  Mack's new lawyer, Marcus Topel, told the Nevada Supreme Court Monday, that "it is undisputed that his counsel had not discussed with him the question of voluntary manslaughter." He added that Mack did not have information he needed to waive his rights and accept a plea deal that stopped his trial in 2007.  But Christopher Lalli, a Washoe County special prosecutor, said that nothing in the law supports the idea that a defendant must be told about the possibliity of being convicted of a lesser crime before pleading guilty.  "The defendant entered a knowing and intelligent and voluntary plea to murder," Lalli said. "He cannot now avoid the consequences of his actions by attempting to invent a new area of Nevada jurisprudence." Under the plea deal that Mack accepted in 2007, Mack was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 20 years for the murder of his wife and a consecutive term of 40 years with possible parole for shooting his divorce judge.