Post-Conviction Relief: Claims, One-Year Deadline, and Filing

Post-conviction relief is the federal process for challenging a criminal conviction or sentence after direct appeals have ended. Two statutes do the work: 28 U.S.C. § 2254 for people convicted in state court, and 28 U.S.C. § 2255 for people convicted in federal court.¹² Both carry a one-year filing deadline that starts the moment the conviction becomes final, and both focus on constitutional errors the trial and appellate courts failed to catch. A successful petition can mean a new trial, a reduced sentence, or release. Winning one is hard. Federal law gives heavy deference to state court rulings, procedural traps dismiss many petitions before any judge looks at the merits, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that only about 3.2 percent of federal habeas petitions were granted in whole or in part.³

Claims That Can Support a Petition

Courts recognize a narrow set of constitutional grounds. A petition built on anything else usually gets dismissed on the first read.

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

The most common claim is that trial counsel’s performance violated the Sixth Amendment. Under Strickland v. Washington, the petitioner must show two things: that the attorney’s performance fell below what a reasonably competent lawyer would have done, and that the poor performance created a reasonable probability of a different outcome.⁴ Both parts are required. A questionable strategic choice isn’t enough; the choice must have been objectively unreasonable and must have actually mattered to the verdict. The prejudice prong is where most of these claims die.

Brady Violations

Prosecutors must turn over evidence favorable to the defense when it is material to guilt or punishment. Brady v. Maryland established the rule, and it applies whether the prosecutor acted in bad faith or simply by carelessness.⁵ Brady violations often surface years after conviction, when old files become accessible or a witness comes forward. If the withheld evidence would have meaningfully changed the trial, the conviction can be vacated.

Newly Discovered Evidence and Actual Innocence

Evidence that didn’t exist at trial, or couldn’t have been found through reasonable effort, can support a petition. DNA testing is the clearest example, but a recanting witness or a newly identified alibi can qualify too. The standard is steep: the petitioner generally must show that no reasonable juror would have convicted in light of the new evidence. Courts treat actual innocence as a last-resort safety valve, not a routine basis for relief.

Retroactive Changes in Constitutional Law

When the Supreme Court announces a new constitutional rule and makes it retroactive, a petitioner whose case is already final can raise it. Teague v. Lane set the framework, holding that new rules of criminal procedure generally do not apply retroactively unless they place certain conduct beyond the government’s power to criminalize or represent a foundational procedural protection without which the risk of inaccurate conviction is unacceptably high.⁶ Very few new rules satisfy either exception.

Jurisdictional and Sentencing Errors

A conviction entered by a court that lacked jurisdiction, or a sentence that exceeds the legal maximum, can be challenged on post-conviction review.² These claims are more straightforward because they don’t require proving what would have happened differently. If the court had no authority or the sentence was illegal on its face, the error speaks for itself.

The One-Year Deadline

Missing the filing deadline is the single easiest way to lose. Both § 2254 and § 2255 carry a one-year statute of limitations.⁷² The clock runs from the latest of four dates:

The date the conviction became final, either when the Supreme Court denied certiorari or when the time to seek further direct review expired.
The date an unconstitutional government-created impediment to filing was removed.
The date the Supreme Court recognized a new constitutional right and made it retroactive.
The date the factual basis of the claim could have been discovered through reasonable diligence.

For state prisoners, the clock pauses while a properly filed state post-conviction petition is pending.⁷ It pauses. It does not reset. Any time that ran before the state petition was filed still counts.

Courts can grant equitable tolling in rare cases where a petitioner pursued their rights diligently but extraordinary circumstances beyond their control prevented a timely filing. The Supreme Court confirmed the two-part test in Holland v. Florida, where an attorney’s gross negligence in missing a deadline qualified.⁸ Equitable tolling is granted sparingly.

One additional safety valve: a credible showing of actual innocence can serve as a gateway past an expired deadline. In McQuiggin v. Perkins, the Supreme Court held that a petitioner who demonstrates actual innocence can overcome the one-year bar entirely, regardless of fault for the delay.⁹ The evidence must be strong enough that no reasonable juror would have convicted.

State Remedies Must Come First

State prisoners cannot jump straight to federal court. Before filing a federal habeas petition, you must present every constitutional claim to the state courts through whatever post-conviction procedures the state provides. Federal law bars habeas relief unless state remedies have been exhausted or the state’s process is unavailable or ineffective.¹ In practice this means raising each claim at every level, up through the state’s highest court.

Failing to follow state procedural rules creates a separate problem: procedural default. If you skip a required step or raise a claim too late under state rules, federal courts will generally refuse to consider that claim on the merits. The state court’s procedural ruling stands as an independent ground blocking federal review. A petitioner can overcome procedural default by showing both cause for the failure (some external factor like government interference or constitutionally deficient counsel during the state proceedings) and actual prejudice from the constitutional error. A powerful actual-innocence showing can also pass through the default barrier.

State deadlines and procedures vary widely. Filing windows run from roughly 180 days to several years depending on the state, and the required steps differ. Check the rules in the state where the conviction occurred before anything else. A procedural misstep at the state level can permanently bar federal review.

Why Federal Judges Defer to State Courts

After clearing every procedural hurdle, petitioners hit the single biggest substantive barrier: the deference standard Congress imposed through the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), a federal court cannot grant relief on any claim a state court already decided on the merits unless the state court’s decision was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court precedent, or rested on an unreasonable determination of the facts.¹

A federal judge might personally believe the state court got it wrong and still deny the petition. “Wrong” and “unreasonable” are not the same thing. The federal court asks whether any fair-minded jurist could have reached the state court’s conclusion. If the answer is yes, even barely, the state ruling stands. This is where most meritorious-sounding petitions die. A petitioner with a strong Strickland claim must show not merely that the state court misapplied the two-part test, but that no reasonable judge could agree with how the state court applied it.

The deference applies only to claims the state court actually decided on the merits. If a claim was never adjudicated in state court, the federal court can review it without the heightened standard, assuming any procedural default issues are overcome.

Preparing and Filing the Petition

Assembling the Record

Building the petition starts with the complete record: trial transcripts, sentencing records, appellate briefs, and any opinions from direct appeal. These documents supply the factual basis for every claim. Police reports, investigative files, and materials not originally part of the trial record should be obtained too, usually by formal request to the clerk of the convicting court. Transcript fees can add up for a multi-day trial.

Affidavits from supporting witnesses are often essential. They must be detailed, signed under penalty of perjury, and tied to a specific constitutional violation. A vague affidavit that doesn’t connect to a particular claim carries no weight. Each piece of evidence should link to one legal ground: an affidavit about what the trial lawyer failed to do supports an ineffective-assistance claim; a new forensic report supports a newly-discovered-evidence claim.

Fees

Federal law sets the habeas filing fee at $5.¹⁰ A petitioner who cannot afford it can apply to proceed in forma pauperis by submitting an affidavit of inability to pay with a certified statement of their prison trust fund account for the preceding six months. For prisoners, in forma pauperis approval does not erase the fee; the court collects an initial partial payment and ongoing monthly withholdings from income until the fee is paid.¹¹ A prisoner with no funds cannot be blocked from filing, but the obligation remains.

Where to File

A state prisoner files the habeas petition in the federal district court for the district where they are confined or where the conviction occurred. A federal prisoner files a § 2255 motion in the court that imposed the sentence. Many courts accept filings by mail. A copy must be served on the government: the state attorney general for § 2254 cases, the U.S. attorney for § 2255 cases. The clerk’s filing stamp is the critical marker for meeting the one-year deadline.

What Happens After Filing

A judge screens the petition before the government has to respond. If the petition plainly shows the petitioner is not entitled to relief, the judge dismisses it immediately without requiring an answer.¹² This filters out petitions that miss filing deadlines, repeat claims already decided, or fail to allege any constitutional violation.

If the petition survives screening, the judge orders the government to answer within a timeframe the judge sets. There is no fixed statutory deadline.¹² The answer must address each allegation and identify any procedural bars, including exhaustion failures, procedural default, and the statute of limitations. The petitioner then gets to reply.

If factual disputes remain unresolved on the written submissions, the judge may schedule an evidentiary hearing. The petitioner can present testimony and cross-examine the government’s witnesses. When a hearing is warranted, the court must appoint counsel for any petitioner who qualifies for appointed representation.¹² Outside the hearing context, there is no constitutional right to an attorney during post-conviction proceedings. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel covers criminal prosecutions, and the Supreme Court has declined to extend it to collateral attacks on a conviction.¹³ Most petitioners navigate the process without a lawyer, which partly explains the low success rate.

Outcomes range from outright denial, which is far and away the most common result, to vacating the conviction and ordering a new trial, resentencing, or release.

Appealing a Denial

A denied habeas claim cannot be appealed by notice alone. Federal law requires a certificate of appealability, and the petitioner must make a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right to obtain one.¹⁴ The certificate must specify which issues meet the threshold, so a petitioner who raised five claims might get permission to appeal only one or two.

The standard doesn’t require showing the claim would succeed on appeal. It requires showing that reasonable jurists could debate whether the petition should have been resolved differently, or that the issues deserve further proceedings. A district judge who denies a petition often addresses the certificate in the same order. If the district judge denies it, the petitioner can ask the court of appeals directly.

Second Petitions Are Rarely Allowed

Filing a second habeas petition after the first is denied is sharply restricted. Any claim raised in the first petition and rejected is dismissed automatically in a second filing. New claims that could have been raised the first time face an equally hostile reception.⁷

A second or successive petition can proceed only if it relies on a new rule of constitutional law the Supreme Court has made retroactive, or if it presents newly discovered facts that could not have been found earlier through reasonable diligence and that establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the petitioner guilty.⁷

Before a second petition can even reach a district court, the petitioner must get advance permission from the court of appeals. A three-judge panel decides whether the petition makes a preliminary showing that it satisfies the criteria, and the decision must come within 30 days. The panel’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed or reconsidered.⁷ Most second attempts never reach a judge who can consider the substance. The system is built around finality, and the first petition is almost always the best chance.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2254 – State Custody; Remedies in Federal Courts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2255 – Federal Custody; Remedies on Motion Attacking Sentence
3
Bureau of Justice Statistics. Habeas Corpus – Federal Review of State Prisoner Petitions
4
Justia. Strickland v Washington, 466 US 668 (1984)
5
Legal Information Institute. Brady v Maryland, 373 US 83 (1963)
6
Justia. Teague v Lane, 489 US 288 (1989)
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 2244 – Finality of Determination
8
Legal Information Institute. Holland v Florida
9
Legal Information Institute. McQuiggin v Perkins
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1914 – District Court; Filing and Miscellaneous Fees
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1915 – Proceedings In Forma Pauperis
12
United States Courts. Rules Governing Section 2254 and Section 2255 Proceedings
13
Legal Information Institute. Post-Conviction Proceedings
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 2253 – Appeal