CALVIN GARRETT GRAY v. DAVID BALLARD
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Floyd, Feb. 8, 2017,
Habeas Corpus – Statute of limitations did not toll for a habeas corpus from state conviction where the defendant didn’t know his blood type and thus failed to realize that the serology report in his case was incorrect.

Facts:
Gray was convicted of murder in 1991 related to the kidnapping and stabbing deaths of two people in West Virginia. Gray’s testimony was that he fought with one of them, but that his half-brother killed both of them and then he (Gray) moved the bodies. A serologist testified that blood found in various locations was consistent with the victims’ blood and not Gray’s. The serologist’s report showed Gray’s blood type as ‘B,’ but no testimony about the blood type was entered as evidence at the trial. In 1998, Gray underwent a medical procedure and found out that his blood type was actually ‘A.’
In 1998, Gray filed a state petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
In 2006, after more than one member of the Serology Division of the West Virginia State Police Crime Lab was found to have fabricated evidence, the Supreme Court of West Virginia required an independent analysis of the lab’s results. During the retest, it was found that various serology findings in Gray’s case were “not supported by data.”
Held: Because Gray could have had an independent expert re-test the blood in 1991, “the factual predicate of the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.” And therefore the defendant’s right to file a habeas corpus had expired by the time he first filed.

Habeas Corpus- A defendant has one year to file a habeas corpus from state conviction from the date:
(A) the judgment became final (including appeal)
(B) the Defendant was illegally prevented from filing
(C) a new, retroactive constitutional right was recognized by the Supreme Court; or
(D) the underlying reason for the claim “could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence”