MARC T. TREADWELL, District Judge.
Before the Court is the Recommendation (Doc. 12) of U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles H. Weigle. The Magistrate Judge recommends the Court grant the Respondent's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 9) the Petitioner's § 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition for failure to comply with the one-year statute of limitations imposed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d). Doc. 12 at 1. The Petitioner has objected to the Recommendation (Doc. 13), specifically the Magistrate Judge's determination that the Petitioner has not established "extraordinary circumstances" to justify equitable tolling and that the application of AEDPA's one-year statute of limitations does not infringe on the Petitioner's Fifth Amendment due process rights. Doc. 13 at 1, 4. The Court has performed a de novo review of the portions of the Recommendation to which the Petitioner objects, and the Court accepts and adopts the findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the Magistrate Judge. The Recommendation is
The Court agrees with and adopts the Magistrate Judge's finding that the Petitioner did not establish an "extraordinary circumstance" to warrant equitable tolling. Doc. 12 at 8. The trial judge's instructions were not "affirmatively misleading" and, further, any potential confusion on the Petitioner's part was mitigated by the fact that he was represented by counsel at the time. As the Magistrate Judge pointed out, the Petitioner's trial counsel in fact stated that he discussed the statute of limitations with the Petitioner. Doc. 11-1 at 4. Nothing else in the record corroborates that Petitioner's trial counsel properly explained the statute of limitations issue or establishes whether trial counsel worked to clarify any misunderstanding on the part of the Petitioner. But even if counsel failed to do so, such a failure does not warrant equitable tolling. Whether attorney negligence could rise to a level to qualify as an "extraordinary circumstance" is unclear.
Accordingly, the Recommendation (Doc. 12) is
The Court can issue a Certificate of Appealability (COA) only if a petitioner "has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right." 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). To merit a COA, the Court must determine "that reasonable jurists could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the petition should have been resolved in a different manner or that the issues presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further." Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336 (2003) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). If a procedural ruling is involved, the petitioner must show "jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the petition states a valid claim of the denial of a constitutional right and that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling." Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000). The Petitioner has not made these showings, and accordingly the COA is