WOOD v. MILYARD, WARDEN, ET AL.
No. 10-9995
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 27, 2012-Decided April 24, 2012
566 U.S. 463
Kathleen A. Lord argued the cause and filed briefs for petitioner.
Melissa Arbus Sherry argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae supporting affirmance. With her on the brief were Solicitor General Verrilli, Assistant Attorney General Breuer, and Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben.*
JUSTICE GINSBURG delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns the authority of a federal court to raise, on its own motion, a statute of limitations defense to a habeas corpus petition. After state prisoner Patrick Wood filed a federal habeas corpus petition, the State twice informed the U. S. District Court that it “[would] not challenge, but [is] not conceding, the timeliness of Wood‘s habeas petition.” App. 70a; see id., at 87a. Thereafter, the District Court rejected Wood‘s claims on the merits. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit directed the parties to brief the question whether Wood‘s federal petition was timely. Post-briefing, the Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Wood‘s petition, but solely on the ground that it was untimely.
I
In the course of a 1986 robbery at a pizza shop in a Colorado town, the shop‘s assistant manager was shot and killed. Petitioner Patrick Wood was identified as the perpetrator. At a bench trial in January 1987, Wood was convicted of murder, robbery, and menacing, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed Wood‘s convictions and sentence on direct appeal in May 1989, and the Colorado Supreme Court denied Wood‘s petition for certiorari five months later. Wood did not ask this Court to review his conviction in the 90 days he had to do so.
Wood then pursued postconviction relief, asserting constitutional infirmities in his trial, conviction, and sentence. Prior to the federal petition at issue here, which was filed in 2008, Wood, proceeding pro se, twice sought relief in state court. First, in 1995, he filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence pursuant to
Wood filed a federal habeas petition in 2008, which the District Court initially dismissed as untimely. App. 41a-46a. On reconsideration, the District Court vacated the dismissal and instructed the State to file a preanswer response “limited to addressing the affirmative defenses of timeliness and/or exhaustion of state court remedies.” Id., at 64a-65a. On timeliness, the State represented in its preanswer response: “Respondents will not challenge, but are not conceding, the timeliness of Wood‘s [federal] habeas petition.” Id., at 70a. Consistently, in its full answer to Wood‘s federal petition, the State repeated: “Respondents are not challenging, but do not concede, the timeliness of the petition.” Id., at 87a.
Disposing of Wood‘s petition, the District Court dismissed certain claims for failure to exhaust state remedies, and denied on the merits Wood‘s two remaining claims-one alleging a double jeopardy violation and one challenging the validity of Wood‘s waiver of his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Id., at 96a-111a. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit ordered the parties to brief, along with the merits of Wood‘s double jeopardy and Sixth Amendment claims, “the timeli-
We granted review, 564 U. S. 1066 (2011), to resolve two issues: first, whether a court of appeals has the authority to address the timeliness of a habeas petition on the court‘s own initiative;2 second, assuming a court of appeals has such authority, whether the State‘s representations to the District Court in this case nonetheless precluded the Tenth Circuit from considering the timeliness of Wood‘s petition.
II
A
Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 110 Stat. 1214, a state prisoner has one year to file a federal petition for habeas corpus relief, starting from “the date on which the judgment became final by the conclusion of direct review or the expiration of the time for seeking such review.”
The state judgment against Wood became final on direct review in early 1990. See supra, at 466. Wood‘s time for filing a federal petition therefore began to run on the date of AEDPA‘s enactment, April 24, 1996, and expired on April 24, 1997, unless Wood had a “properly filed” application for state postconviction relief “pending” in Colorado state court during that period. Wood maintains he had such an application pending on April 24, 1996: the
In its preanswer response to Wood‘s petition, the State set forth its comprehension of the statute of limitations issue. It noted that Wood‘s “time for filing a [habeas] petition began to run on April 24, 1996, when the AEDPA became effective,” and that Wood “had until April 24, 1997, plus any tolling periods, to timely file his habeas petition.” App. 69a-70a. The State next identified the crucial question: Did Wood‘s 1995 state petition arrest the one-year statute of limitations period from 1996 until 2004? Id., at 70a. “[I]t is certainly arguable,” the State then asserted, “that the 1995
B
“Ordinarily in civil litigation, a statutory time limitation is forfeited if not raised in a defendant‘s answer or in an amendment thereto.” Day, 547 U. S., at 202 (citing
In Granberry v. Greer, we recognized a modest exception to the rule that a federal court will not consider a forfeited affirmative defense. 481 U. S., at 134. The District Court in Granberry denied a federal habeas petition on the merits. Id., at 130. On appeal, the State argued for the first time that the petition should be dismissed because the petitioner had failed to exhaust relief available in state court. Ibid.
Although “express[ing] our reluctance to adopt rules that allow a party to withhold raising a defense until after the ‘main event‘... is over,” id., at 132, we nonetheless concluded that the bar to court of appeals’ consideration of a forfeited habeas defense is not absolute, id., at 133. The exhaustion doctrine, we noted, is founded on concerns broader than those of the parties; in particular, the doctrine fosters respectful, harmonious relations between the state and federal judiciaries. Id., at 133-135. With that comity interest in mind, we held that federal appellate courts have discretion, in “exceptional cases,” to consider a nonexhaustion argument “inadverten[tly]” overlooked by the State in the District Court. Id., at 132, 134.5
In Day, we affirmed a federal district court‘s authority to consider a forfeited habeas defense when extraordinary circumstances so warrant. 547 U. S., at 201. There, the State miscalculated a timespan, specifically, the number of days running between the finality of Day‘s state-court conviction and the filing of his federal habeas petition. Id., at 203. As a result, the State erroneously informed the District Court that Day‘s petition was timely. Ibid. A Magistrate Judge caught the State‘s computation error and recommended that the petition be dismissed as untimely, notwithstanding the State‘s timeliness concession. Id., at 204. The District
Concluding that it would make “scant sense” to treat AEDPA‘s statute of limitations differently from other threshold constraints on federal habeas petitioners, we held “that district courts are permitted, but not obliged, to consider, sua sponte, the timeliness of a state prisoner‘s habeas petition.” Id., at 209; ibid. (noting that
We clarified, however, that a federal court does not have carte blanche to depart from the principle of party presentation basic to our adversary system. See Greenlaw v. United States, 554 U. S. 237, 243-244 (2008). Only where the State does not “strategically withh[o]ld the [limitations] defense or cho[o]se to relinquish it,” and where the petitioner is accorded a fair opportunity to present his position, may a district court consider the defense on its own initiative and “‘determine whether the interests of justice would be better served’ by addressing the merits or by dismissing the petition as time barred.” Day, 547 U. S., at 210-211 (quoting Granberry, 481 U. S., at 136; internal quotation marks omitted). It would be “an abuse of discretion,” we observed, for
Consistent with Granberry and Day, we decline to adopt an absolute rule barring a court of appeals from raising, on its own motion, a forfeited timeliness defense. The institutional interests served by AEDPA‘s statute of limitations are also present when a habeas case moves to the court of appeals, a point Granberry recognized with respect to a nonexhaustion defense. We accordingly hold, in response to the first question presented, see supra, at 468, that courts of appeals, like district courts, have the authority-though not the obligation-to raise a forfeited timeliness defense on their own initiative.
C
We turn now to the second, case-specific, inquiry. See ibid. Although a court of appeals has discretion to address, sua sponte, the timeliness of a habeas petition, appellate courts should reserve that authority for use in exceptional cases. For good reason, appellate courts ordinarily abstain from entertaining issues that have not been raised and preserved in the court of first instance. See supra, at 470. That restraint is all the more appropriate when the appellate court itself spots an issue the parties did not air below, and therefore would not have anticipated in developing their arguments on appeal.
Due regard for the trial court‘s processes and time investment is also a consideration appellate courts should not overlook. It typically takes a district court more time to decide a habeas case on the merits than it does to resolve a petition on threshold procedural grounds. See Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, R. Hanson & H. Daley, Federal Habeas Corpus Review: Challenging State Court Criminal Convictions 23 (NCJ-155504, 1995) (district courts spent an
In light of the foregoing discussion of the relevant considerations, we hold that the Tenth Circuit abused its discretion when it dismissed Wood‘s petition as untimely. In the District Court, the State was well aware of the statute of limitations defense available to it and of the arguments that could be made in support of the defense. See supra, at 467. Yet the State twice informed the District Court that it “will not challenge, but [is] not conceding” the timeliness of Wood‘s petition. Ibid. Essentially, the District Court asked the State: Will you oppose the petition on statute of limitations grounds? The State answered: Such a challenge would be supportable, but we won‘t make the challenge here.
“[W]aiver is the ‘intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right.‘” Kontrick v. Ryan, 540 U. S. 443, 458, n. 13 (2004) (quoting United States v. Olano, 507 U. S. 725, 733 (1993)). The State‘s conduct in this case fits that description. Its decision not to contest the timeliness of Wood‘s petition did not stem from an “inadvertent error,” as did the State‘s concession in Day. See 547 U. S., at 211. Rather, the State, after expressing its clear and accurate understanding of the timeliness issue, see supra, at 469-470, deliberately steered the District Court away from the question and toward the merits of Wood‘s petition. In short, the State knew it had an “arguable” statute of limitations defense, see ibid., yet it chose, in no uncertain terms, to refrain from interposing a timeliness “challenge” to Wood‘s petition. The District Court therefore reached and decided the merits of the petition. The Tenth Circuit should have done so as well.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE SCALIA joins, concurring in the judgment.
In Day v. McDonough, 547 U. S. 198 (2006), the Court held that a federal district court may raise sua sponte a forfeited statute of limitations defense to a habeas corpus petition. Relying on Day and Granberry v. Greer, 481 U. S. 129 (1987), the Court now holds that a court of appeals may do the same. Because I continue to think that Day was wrongly decided and that Granberry is inapposite, I cannot join the Court‘s opinion. See Day, 547 U. S., at 212-219 (SCALIA, J., joined by THOMAS and BREYER, JJ., dissenting).
As the dissent in Day explained, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure apply in habeas corpus cases to the extent that they are consistent with the Habeas Corpus Rules, the habeas corpus statute, and the historical practice of habeas proceedings. Id., at 212 (citing Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U. S. 524, 529-530 (2005), and Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U. S. 202, 208 (2003)). As relevant here, the Rules of Civil Procedure provide that a defendant forfeits his statute of limitations defense if he fails to raise it in his answer or in an amendment thereto. 547 U. S., at 212 (citing
As the dissent in Day further explained, id., at 214, AEDPA‘s statute of limitations is distinguishable from the equitable defenses that we have traditionally permitted federal habeas courts to raise sua sponte. See, e. g., Granberry, supra, at 133 (holding that appellate courts may consider a habeas petitioner‘s failure to exhaust state remedies despite a State‘s forfeiture of the defense). Those judicially created defenses were rooted in concerns of comity and finality that arise when federal courts collaterally review state criminal convictions. Day, 547 U. S., at 214. But those same concerns did not lead this Court to recognize any equitable time bar against habeas petitions. Id., at 214-215. Thus, nothing in this Court‘s pre-existing doctrine of equitable defenses supported the Day Court‘s “decision to beef up the presumptively forfeitable ‘limitations period’ of
For these reasons, I believe that the Day Court was wrong to hold that district courts may raise sua sponte forfeited statute of limitations defenses in habeas cases. I therefore would not extend Day‘s reasoning to proceedings in the courts of appeals. Appellate courts, moreover, are particularly ill suited to consider issues forfeited below. Unlike district courts, courts of appeals cannot permit a State to amend its answer to add a defense, nor can they develop the facts that are often necessary to resolve questions of timeliness. Cf. id., at 209 (majority opinion) (finding no difference between a district court‘s ability to raise a forfeited limitations defense sua sponte and its ability to notice the State‘s
In light of these considerations, I cannot join the Court‘s holding that a court of appeals has discretion to consider sua sponte a forfeited limitations defense. Nor can I join the Court‘s separate holding that the Court of Appeals abused its discretion by raising a defense that had been deliberately waived by the State. As the dissent in Day noted, there is no principled reason to distinguish between forfeited and waived limitations defenses when determining whether courts may raise such defenses sua sponte. See 547 U. S., at 218, n. 3 (explaining that, if “‘values beyond the concerns of the parties‘” justify sua sponte consideration of forfeited defenses, such values equally support sua sponte consideration of waived defenses). Therefore, I concur only in the judgment.