A Maryland court has adopted the “mailbox rule” for prison inmates, setting the filing date of petitions for post-conviction relief based on when papers are submitted to the prison mailroom.
The Daily Record reports that the Court of Appeals unanimously ruled last week to revive a convicted murderer’s petition that both the Baltimore City Circuit Court and the Court of Special Appeals had rejected for reaching the circuit court clerk’s office a day late.
The Court of Appeals ruled that Thoyt Hackney had indeed met the 10-year filing deadline because he handed the papers to the prison mailroom three days before the deadline. Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera noted in the opinion that inmates are dependent on prison officials and the postal system for court correspondence.
