Johnny Ray Johnson v. Nathaniel Quarterman, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

Johnny Ray Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 capital murder of Leah Joette Smith. In the post-conviction proceedings the Texas courts upheld his conviction and death sentence. In this federal habeas proceeding, the district court denied relief on the ground that Johnson’s petition was not timely filed under the filing limitation period of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), and that he had not demonstrated the rare and exceptional circumstances necessary for application of the doctrine of equitable tolling.…