LII Bulletin Previews Day v. Crosby Argument to Occur Monday before the Supreme Court

Cornell's LII Bulletin has posted the following preview of the oral argument slated to take place in Day v. Crosby (04-1324) before the Supreme Court this coming Monday:

HABEAS CORPUS, CIVIL PROCEDURE, PLEADINGS, FINALITY, LIMITATIONS, DEFENSES, WAIVER, STATUTORY INTERPRETATION

Day v. Crosby (04-1324)
Oral argument date: February 26, 2006

Patrick Day is currently incarcerated in the state of Florida, serving a 55-year sentence for second-degree murder. Florida State Courts affirmed his conviction, and in 2003 Day petitioned for habeas corpus review in United States District Court. Under 28 U.S.C. 2254, Day was allowed to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but the habeas rules provide a statute of limitations for filing the writ, and allow a district court to dismiss the petition sua sponte (on its own volition) for any one of a number of reasons. In fact, Day's petition was late, but the district court did not dismiss the petition for this reason until after it asked for the State to file a response to Day's petition. In its response the state failed to raise the statute of limitations defense. In this case the Supreme Court must decide whether the State waived its statute of limitations defense when it failed to raise the defense in its responsive pleading and whether the district court was correct in dismissing the petition sua sponte even after the State erroneously admitted in its response that Day's petition was timely. The case raises legal and policy considerations, especially in regard to the federal review of otherwise final state court criminal decisions.

The full preview is available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/04-1324.html.