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Notice for a first appeal

Olamide Olatayo Bello v. United States

Updated Nov 12, 2026

In brief

Where it stands
Petition Pending

Awaiting an order on the petition

No decision timeline until the Court agrees to hear the case.

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

1

Docket activity

6
  • Case data updated: title

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • New analysis added

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • AI analysis generated: Case Briefing

    Nov 12, 2026 · Generated

  • Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

  • Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata

    Nov 12, 2026 · Court records

Show 1 more
  • Brief added: Petition

    Nov 27, 2025 · Court records

More questions

1
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.

Checked Nov 12, 2026Methodology

Court records and filings

Reporting and analysis