Socha v. Boughton

Dist. Ct. abused its discretion in dismissing as untimely defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder conviction, after finding that defendant was not entitled to equitable tolling of relevant one-year deadline for filing habeas petition. Record showed that defendant’s counsel on direct appeal had unjustifiably withheld defendant’s file for all but 40 days that defendant had to file habeas petition, and prison rules allowed defendant access to prison library only 80 minutes every two weeks. Moreover, record showed that defendant was otherwise diligent with respect to his attempt to file timely habeas petition and had timely sought and obtained extension to file habeas petition from different Dist. Ct. judge.