Cite as: 533 U. S. 167 (2001)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
exhaustion of state remedies. Indeed, there is every reason to do so when AEDPA gives a district court the alternative of simply denying a petition containing unexhausted but nonmeritorious claims, see 28 U. S. C. § 2254(b)(2) (1994 ed., Supp. V), and when the failure to retain jurisdiction would foreclose federal review of a meritorious claim because of the lapse of AEDPA's 1-year limitations period.
Second, despite the Court's suggestion that tolling the limitations period for a first federal habeas petition would undermine the "purposes" of AEDPA, see ante, at 178-182, neither the Court's narrow holding, nor anything in the text or legislative history of AEDPA, precludes a federal court from deeming the limitations period tolled for such a petition as a matter of equity. The Court's opinion does not address a federal court's ability to toll the limitations period apart from § 2244(d)(2). See ante, at 181. Furthermore, a federal court might very well conclude that tolling is appropriate based on the reasonable belief that Congress could not have intended to bar federal habeas review for petitioners who invoke the court's jurisdiction within the 1-year interval prescribed by AEDPA.
After all, federal habeas corpus has evolved as the product of both judicial doctrine and statutory law. See generally E. Chemerinsky, Federal Jurisdiction § 15 (3d ed. 1999). In the context of AEDPA's 1-year limitations period, which by its terms runs from "the date on which the judgment became final," see § 2244(d)(1)(A), the Courts of Appeals have uniformly created a 1-year grace period, running from the date of AEDPA's enactment, for prisoners whose state convictions became final prior to AEDPA.1 Similarly, federal
1 See, e. g., Gaskins v. Duval, 183 F. 3d 8, 9 (CA1 1999); Ross v. Artuz, 150 F. 3d 97, 100-103 (CA2 1998); Burns v. Morton, 134 F. 3d 109, 111-112 (CA3 1998); Brown v. Angelone, 150 F. 3d 370, 374-376 (CA4 1998); United States v. Flores, 135 F. 3d 1000, 1002, n. 7, 1006 (CA5 1998); Austin v. Mitchell, 200 F. 3d 391, 393 (CA6 1999); Lindh v. Murphy, 96 F. 3d 856,
183
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007