Damon Bentley v. Connie Horton, Warden
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Petitioner Bentley's murder conviction rests on a clerical error committed by the Wayne County Clerk Office which denoted the wrong filing date to his post-appeal motion, filed well within the one year time requirement of 23 U.S.C. § 2244(d), thus, at her own will changed the correct filing date of the post-appeal pleadings to a date beyond §2244(d) one-year statute limit. The sua sponte changing of the filing date, by the Clerk of the Court, to the post-appeal pleadings foreclosed federal habeas corpus review of Petitioner Bentley's federal constitutional claims. Had the Clerk of the Court office correctly noted the filing date as August 26, 2005, the procedural bar of §2244 (d) would not have been erroneously applied to this case by the district court foreclosing federal review of constitutional claims that warrants the granting of the writ.
Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is violated when a State prisoner is not given a complete and fair hearing in the district court when he files a 60(d) motion alleging fraud to expose a state trial court's clerk clerical error, which forecloses federal habeas corpus review of constitutional claims.
Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is violated when a State prisoner is not given a complete and fair hearing in the district court when he files a 60(d) motion alleging fraud to expose a state trial court's clerk clerical error, which forecloses federal habeas corpus review of constitutional claims