Damon Bentley v. Connie Horton, Warden
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is violated when a State prisoner is not given a complete and fair hearing in the district court when he files a 60(d) motion alleging fraud to expose a state trial court's clerk clerical error, which forecloses federal habeas corpus review of constitutional claims
QUESTION PRESENTED Petitioner Bentley's murder conviction rests on a clerical error committed by the Wayne County Clerk Office which denoted the wrong filing date to his post-appeal motion, filed well within the one year time requirement of 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d), thus, at her own will changed the correct filing date of the post-appeal pleadings to a date beyond §2244(d) one-year statute limit. The sua sponte changing of the filing date, by the Clerk of the Court, to the post-appeal pleadings foreclosed federal habeas corpus review of Petitioner Bentley's federal constitutional claims. Had the Clerk of the Court office . Gorrectly noted the filing date as August 26, 2005, the procedural bar of §2244(d) would not ‘have been erroneously applied to this case by the district court foreclosing federal : review of constitutional claims that warrants the granting of the writ. The question presented is: Whether the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause is violated when a State prisoner is not given a complete and fair hearing in the district court when he files a 60(d) motion alleging fraud to expose a state trial court's clerk clerical error, which forecloses federal habeas corpus review of constitutional claims. ;