Barry Owen Steen v. Jesse Howes

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Kansas dismissed Barry Owen Steen’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition with prejudice as untimely. The court found that Steen had not established grounds for equitable tolling or the actual-innocence exception and denied a certificate of appealability.

Holdings

1. The petition was untimely because the federal habeas statute of limitations expired in August 2025 and Steen filed his petition on December 5, 2025.
2. Equitable tolling was unavailable because Steen did not assert extraordinary circumstances warranting tolling.
3. Steen could not invoke the actual-innocence gateway because he did not assert or demonstrate a colorable claim of actual innocence.
4. No certificate of appealability should issue because the court's procedural ruling was not debatable among jurists of reason.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Steen's § 2254 petition was untimely under the federal habeas statute of limitations.
2. Whether Steen established grounds for equitable tolling of the statute of limitations.
3. Whether Steen could proceed through the actual-innocence exception to the statute of limitations.
4. Whether a certificate of appealability should issue after dismissal on procedural grounds.

Disposition

dismissed