PHILIP FRAZIER, Magistrate Judge
Before the Court is respondent's motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 8). Apollina Thomas is confined at Lincoln Correctional Center. She seeks habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
In 1998, a jury found Thomas guilty of first degree murder in the Circuit Court for Jackson County, Illinois. She was sentenced to serve a term of natural life in prison. On direct appeal, the Illinois Appellate Court remanded for re-sentencing. The Circuit Court reduced Thomas' sentence to a 30-year term, and Thomas did not appeal that decision.
On February 28, 2003, Thomas filed a petition for relief from judgment, which was denied on September 8, 2003. That decision was appealed and the appeal was denied. Thomas' petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court was filed on February 19, 2004. The petition was denied on May 26, 2004.
In this action, Thomas claims that her first degree murder conviction violates the U.S. Constitution because she received ineffective assistance from counsel and suffered from mental deficiencies at the time of the crime and/or trial. She also claims that the trial judge was biased or prejudiced against her. She seeks an order directing the Circuit Court in Jackson County to further reduce her sentence and order that she serve the remaining portion of her sentence in a mental health facility.
Respondent seeks dismissal pursuant to § 2244(d), which imposes a one-year limitations period on habeas petitions. Respondent contends that the one-year limitation period governing Thomas' claim started running on July 1, 2000, thirty days after she was re-sentenced to serve a 30-year term in prison, and expired before she signed her petition or filed another pleading that could have tolled the running of the limitations period. Thomas maintains that her petition is timely because the limitations period did not start running until May 26, 2004, the date the Illinois Supreme Court denied her petition for leave to appeal an order denying her petition for relief from judgment (Doc. No. 14).
A state prisoner who seeks federal habeas corpus relief from a criminal conviction has one year from the date the conviction became final to file a federal habeas petition. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1)(A). Thomas' conviction was final on July 1, 2000, thirty days after the Jackson County Circuit Court imposed a reduced sentence on June 1, 2000. The limitations period expired one year later, on July 1, 2001. Subsequent events, such as proceedings relating to Thomas' petition seeking relief from the judgment, did not lengthen the limitations period, which expired before Thomas filed her petition for relief from judgment on February 28, 2003. Because Thomas did sign her habeas petition until August 19, 2004 — long after the limitations period expired — her habeas petition is untimely.
IT IS RECOMMENDED that respondent's motion to dismiss (Doc. No. 8) be GRANTED. This action should be dismissed with prejudice as untimely filed.