Omari Lewis Crump, Sr. v. Leslie Cooley Dismukes, Secretary, North Carolina Department of Adult Correction

Summary

The United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina dismissed Omari Lewis Crump, Sr.’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition as untimely under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The court held that the petitioner’s state motion for appropriate relief did not toll the limitations period because it was filed after that period had expired. The court also rejected his asserted actual-innocence gateway claim and declined to issue a certificate of appealability.

Holdings

1. The petition was untimely because Petitioner's state judgment became final on November 8, 2021, and the one-year AEDPA limitations period expired on November 8, 2022, before Petitioner filed his federal petition on December 11, 2024.
2. Petitioner failed to demonstrate that statutory or equitable tolling applied.
3. Petitioner did not pass through the actual-innocence gateway because he presented neither new reliable evidence nor a supported theory demonstrating that no reasonable juror would have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
4. The court declined to issue a certificate of appealability.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the § 2254 petition was barred by the one-year statute of limitations in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(A).
2. Whether Petitioner's state motion for appropriate relief tolled or revived the expired federal limitations period.
3. Whether Petitioner established statutory or equitable tolling under the circumstances.
4. Whether Petitioner satisfied the actual-innocence gateway recognized in Schlup v. Delo and extended to time-barred habeas claims by McQuiggin v. Perkins.
5. Whether a certificate of appealability should issue.

Disposition

dismissed