Supreme Court to decide on appeals deadline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court will decide when to start the one-year period criminals have to appeal their convictions. The high court on Monday agreed to hear from Raphael Gonzalez, who wants to appeal his murder conviction in Texas. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear him, saying Gonzalez missed his deadline to appeal. Gonzalez says different federal courts use different ways to count that one year. He missed a filing deadline at the state appeals court, and the court started counting his one year from the last day of that filing period. Other federal courts would have started counting from the day the state court announced Gonzalez had missed the deadline. The high court will decide which is correct. The case is Gonzalez v Thaler, 10-895. Published: Thu, Jun 16, 2011