Notice for a first appeal
Olamide Olatayo Bello v. United States
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- Olamide Olatayo Bello says the Fifth Circuit dismissed his criminal appeal after he did not answer a notice he says he never received while leaving a Bureau of Prisons facility in federal custody.
- What's at stake
- The dispute is whether Bello can get his first criminal appeal restored; the Supreme Court has not taken up that question.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
He argues this violated his rights to fair process and equal treatment and asks whether he must prove harm; his petition was distributed for a conference.
Bello says he did not receive the notice while he was leaving a Bureau of Prisons facility, even though he remained in federal custody.
Bello’s petition raises whether a notice failure can cut off a person’s first criminal appeal and whether he was treated differently from others in similar cases.
Question presented
1. Whether the dismissal of a criminal appeal for failure to respond to a notice that Petitioner never received while in a facility he was in the process of leaving, during continuous Bureau of Prisons custody, violated the Due Process Clause under Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306 (1950), and the right to a first appeal of right recognized in Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387 (1985), and Rodriquez v. United States, 395 U.S. 327 (1969). 2. Whether the loss of an entire first appeal of right through court-created notice failure constitutes structural error under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), requiring reinstatement without a showing of prejudice. 3. Whether the Fifth Circuit’s reinstatement of other appeals following materially identical notice failures, while denying Petitioner relief, denies the equal protection of the laws guaranteed against the federal Government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
What happens next
The petition was distributed for a conference scheduled for September 28, 2026. That distribution is not a grant of review or a guarantee of a decision on that date.
Documents
Docket activity
Case data updated: title
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
More questions
- What does Bello say happened in similar appeals?
- He says the Fifth Circuit restored other appeals after similar notice failures but denied him relief.
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.