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Massaline v. Williams

The Supreme Court adopted the mailbox rule for pro se prisoners pursuing review of their habeas corpus cases.

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Robert Massaline is incarcerated in Georgia’s prison system and is without legal representation. Massaline filed pro se an application for certificate of probable cause to appeal “application”, requesting this Court to review the superior court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. We dismissed his application because it was received in the Clerk of Court’s office one day after the due date. We granted Massaline’s motion for reconsideration and his application to consider whether we should adopt a mailbox rule under which a pro se prisoner’s application should be deemed filed on the date he delivers it to the prison authorities for forwarding to the clerk of court. We answer this question affirmatively and adopt a mailbox rule for pro se prisoners pursuing review of their habeas corpus cases.

Massaline filed pro se a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which the superior court denied on April 24, 2000. The deadline for Massaline to appeal was May 24, 2000. He mailed his application to this Court and his notice of appeal to the Clerk of the Gwinnett County Superior Court. Both documents were dated May 22, 2000. The notice of appeal was filed timely in the superior court on May 24. Massaline’s application, however, was filed in this Court on May 25, one day late. Unless Massaline’s application is covered by a mailbox rule, his appeal will be dismissed as untimely.1

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