Full opinion text
Judge POOLER dissents in a separate opinion. SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge. Petitioner-appellant John Doe appeals from the decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, J.), denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Although Doe seeks to challenge his 1995 New York State conviction for second-degree sodomy, he failed to file his petition within the limitations period provided by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). Doe argues that the limitations period should be tolled because he is actually innocent of the offense to which he pled guilty, because the attorney whom he hired to file his state post-conviction motion incompetently failed to file the motion in time to trigger the tolling provision provided in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2), and because the unavailability of New York State case law in the library of the federal prison in which he was incarcerated rendered him unable to file his state post-conviction motion pro se. Although the district court found that Doe was actually innocent, it declined to hold that actual innocence provides a basis for tolling AEDPA’s limitations period, and it also rejected Doe’s other asserted bases for tolling. On appeal, Doe argues that because he has presented a credible claim of actual innocence, the Suspension Clause, the Eighth Amendment, and due process mandate that AEDPA’s limitations period be equitably tolled. With respect to the attorney competence issue, he asserts that our decision in Baldayaque v. United States, 338 F.3d 145 (2d Cir.2003), issued after the district court’s- ruling on the issue, necessitates reversing the court’s finding that the incompetence of Doe’s attorney did not warrant tolling. Finally, Doe argues that the district court erred in holding that his claim of prison library inadequacy could not serve as a basis for equitable tolling., Because any one of these grounds is sufficient to toll the limitations period, Doe maintains, he should be given the opportunity to have his constitutional claims adjudicated on their merits. We hold that the district court relied on clearly erroneous findings of fact in determining that Doe had presented new reliable evidence of innocence and was actually innocent. With respect to Doe’s attorney incompetence argument, we affirm the court’s conclusion that Doe failed to exercise reasonable diligence, and thus do not reach Doe’s contention that his attorney’s incompetence is sufficiently egregious to'warrant tolling under Baldayaque. We also affirm the court’s holding that Doe is not entitled to tolling based on purported inadequacies of the prison library because Doe’s post-conviction motion relied largely on federal law. BACKGROUND I. Doe’s Second-Degree Sodomy Conviction The following facts are taken from the affidavits and transcripts in the record, as well as from the testimony given at the evidentiary hearing conducted before the district court in March 2003, and are essentially undisputed. Any factual disputes that have arisen during the habeas proceedings will be treated- in greater detail in the discussion of the hearing testimony, below. John Doe’s second-degree sodomy conviction was the result of a long-running investigation, conducted jointly by federal and state law enforcement agencies, into a ring of pedophiles based in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. The ring was composed of men who called themselves “Boy Lovers,” a phrase that Doe defined as men who liked to have sex with young boys, and its activities consisted of exchanging and creating child pornography, “seducing” and- sharing victims, and soliciting child prostitution. Although the exact dates of Doe’s, affiliation with the group are unclear, it appears that he was friendly with its principals, and participated in its activities, beginning in the early 1980s and continuing at least through 1993. Doe’s activities as a member of the group apparently never gave rise to a criminal investigation prior to 1993, although Doe did have one sex offense conviction in Maine, stemming from his 1975 attempt to pay two young boys to pose for pornographic pictures. During the summer of 1993, New York and New Jersey state and federal investigators were investigating the activities of two members of the group, Richard Bagar-ozy and Edward Federowicz, who were suspected of creating and warehousing child pornography and transporting boys from New York to New Jersey for sex. Investigators for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office in New York (“the DA’s Office”) conducted several wiretaps of Bagarozy and Federowicz, and became alerted to Doe’s existence when, on August 17, 1993, they overheard Bagarozy and Federowicz discussing how Doe had recently had sex with a boy named Edwin and had paid him afterwards. In later wiretaps, Doe was overheard discussing Edwin with Federowicz in a sexually explicit manner. Based on this information, the DA’s Office attempted to locate Edwin in order to determine whether a crime had been committed, but did not succeed in doing so until February 1994. Meanwhile, the FBI also had begun to investigate Doe as a member of the Boy Lovers. On September 9, 1993, the FBI and investigators from the DA’s Office and other state authorities searched Doe’s Westchester County apartment as part of a coordinated series of searches and arrests intended to break up the ring. The investigators recovered items of child pornography from Doe’s apartment, and the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York initially considered prosecuting him on child pornography charges, although it is not clear how far these deliberations progressed. Six days after the search, on September 15, Doe and his attorney, Murray Rich-man, met with federal investigators for the purpose of determining whether Doe had sufficient knowledge of the Boy Lovers’ ring to warrant offering him a plea bargain in return for his cooperation. Doe spoke with the federal investigators pursuant to a proffer agreement that guaranteed that the United States would not use any of his statements against him in any judicial proceeding, except for purposes of cross-examination or rebuttal. During the proffer session, Doe provided a detailed description of the Boy Lovers’ “seduction” methods, the names of their victims, as well as an account of his personal involvement with Bagarozy and Federowicz and his own sexual acts with children. ■ He volunteered that “in the last couple months,” he had had sex with a boy named Edwin, who was also sexually associated with Bagaro-zy. ' This would place the encounter in July or August of 1993. According to Doe, “the sex included oral'copulation and masturbation.” Doe participated in a second proffer session in October 1993, where he provided more information about Bagarozy’s and Federowicz’s activities, but apparently did not discuss his own activities with Edwin. Although Doe himself was still under investigation for federal crimes at that time, at some point the federal government decided not to charge him. Nonetheless, Doe continued to work with Special Agent James Kyle of the FBI, providing information regarding the ongoing activities of the Boy Lovers and assisting the FBI in locating Bagarozy’s stash of child pornography. In February 1995, Doe testified for the government in the federal trial of Bagaro-zy and Federowicz, where he provided extensive evidence of the Boy Lovers’ activities and victims, as well as the defendants’ individual proclivities and creation of child pornography. Meanwhile, investigator Pat Storino of the DA’s Office was investigating the connection between Doe and Edwin on the basis of the August wiretaps. Storino located Edwin on February 3, 1994, but did not attempt to question him about his contact with Doe. Also in early February, Doe told Special Agent Kyle that Edwin had attempted to contact Doe because O’Rourke had recently gotten out of prison and had coached Edwin and another underage victim, Edward R., on how to deceive the authorities. According to Doe, Edwin wanted Doe to know that he had promised not to say anything incriminating to any law enforcement authorities. Special Agent Kyle transmitted this information to the DA’s Office on February 10. In March 1994, the DA’s Office interviewed Edwin on two separate occasions. Assistant District Attorney (“ADA”) Elizabeth Cronin of the Special Prosecutions Division, which handles domestic violence and child abuse cases, conducted the interviews. In accordance with the DA’s Office’s customary practice when dealing with underage victims, the interviews were not recorded and Edwin was not asked to sign a written statement, so Cronin’s handwritten notes provide the only record of the substance of Edwin’s statements. During the first interview, Cronin elicited general information about Edwin’s relationship with Doe and Doe’s practice of taking Edwin and his friends out for hotdogs at Nathan’s, a fast food restaurant, to arcades, and back to Doe’s apartment to play video games. Cronin’s notes taken during the second interview, on March 18, 1994, indicate that Edwin told her that Doe had on earlier occasions attempted to “grab [Edwin’s] crotch” while driving him to Nathan’s, and had at least once tried to force Edwin onto the bed in Doe’s apartment. On August 13, 1993, Edwin went to Doe’s apartment to play computer games, and Doe tried to pull down Edwin’s pants while Edwin was sitting at the computer. Doe then grabbed Edwin, took him to the bedroom, threw him down on the bed, pulled his pants down, and put his mouth around Edwin’s penis. Edwin was able to shake Doe off by kicking him, and Doe later drove Edwin home and gave him $50. Edwin also provided a detailed description of Doe’s apartment, which Cronin later verified, and indicated that he remembered when the alleged forcible contact had occurred because it was the Friday before he moved on August 15, 1993, which places the incident on August 13. In October 1994, Cronin notified Doe’s attorney, Murray Richman, that the DA’s Office intended to prosecute Doe for attempting to have sex with Edwin. Rich-man protested, asserting that the use immunity agreements that Doe had signed during his proffer sessions prohibited the DA’s Office from prosecuting Doe for any offense that he had described during the proffer session. Cronin maintained that the September 15 use immunity agreement did not purport to bind the DA’s Office, and offered to allow Doe to plead to second-degree sodomy, with a sentence of probation, rather than to a forcible sodomy charge that would mandate a prison sentence. Angry that Richman had apparently misconstrued the immunity agreement, Doe fired him and retained another lawyer, who negotiated the plea bargain. In February 1995, Doe pled guilty in Westchester County Court to one count of second-degree sodomy. During the plea allocution, Doe was asked, “Do you admit that you, in the Village of Tarrytown ... on or about and between July 1st of 1993 and August 13th of 1993, being 18 years of age or more, engaged in deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 14 years of age, consisting of contact between mouth and penis?” Doe, under oath, admitted the charge. Approximately ten months after entering the guilty plea, Doe rehired Richman and attempted to withdraw his plea on the basis of an alleged jurisdictional defect, but did not assert his actual innocence. The motion was denied, and Doe was sentenced to five years’ probation in January 1996. The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction in relevant part in September 1997, and denied leave to appeal on August 19, 1998. The AED-PA limitations period therefore began running on November 19, 1998, after the 90-day period to seek certiorari with the United States Supreme Court expired. See Pratt v. Greiner, 306 F.3d 1190, 1195 & n. 1 (2d Cir.2002). Doe did not immediately file a state collateral challenge to his conviction pursuant to New York Criminal Procedure Law § 440.10. In November 1998, Doe was arrested on federal charges of conspiring to receive and possess child pornography over the internet. After it became apparent that the New York second-degree sodomy conviction would adversely affect Doe’s sentencing under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, Doe retained attorney Patrick Wall in February 1999 to collaterally attack the conviction in New York Supreme Court by filing a § 440 motion. Because Doe was incarcerated in a federal facility at the time, he gave his brother, Peter Gould, a power of attorney to enable him to retain, pay and supervise Wall. Despite Doe’s and Gould’s supervision, Wall decided to delay filing the § 440 motion until the federal pre-sentence report was completed, at least in part because the motion might not be necessary if the pre-sentence report did not use the sodomy conviction to enhance Doe’s sentencing calculation. When the AEDPA limitations period expired on November 19,1999, Wall had not yet filed the § 440 motion, thereby losing the opportunity to invoke 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2)’s provision for tolling the limitations period during the pendency of a state post-conviction motion. By February 2000, it was apparent that Wall’s various health problems were preventing him from working on the motion, and Doe fired him. Doe finally filed the § 440 motion in May 2000, alleging that the DA’s Office withheld exculpatory evidence, committed prosecutorial misconduct by breaching the federal use immunity agreements, and coerced his guilty plea. The motion was denied in June 2001, and the Appellate Division denied leave to appeal in November 2001. II. Doe’s Federal Habeas Petition A. Initial Proceedings Doe filed the instant petition on November 30, 2001, just over two years after AEDPA’s limitations period had run. He conceded that his petition was untimely, but raised the three tolling arguments at issue here, although in a l'ess developed form. With respect to the actual innocence issue, Doe proffered an affidavit in which Edwin stated that Doe never molested him and'that he never told the DA’s Office that Doe had attempted to have any sexual contact with him. The district court found, however, in an order dated February 2002, that a claim of actual innocence did not provide a basis for tolling AEDPA’s limitations period, noting “the clear intent of AEDPA to bring repose to state convictions in the federal courts, whatever the social cost.” The court also denied Doe’s tolling claim based on attorney incompetence, finding that our decision in Smaldone v. Senkowski, 273 F.3d 133 (2d Cir.2001) (per curiam), mandated the conclusion that Wall’s lack of diligence was insufficient to constitute “extraordinary circumstances” meriting equitable tolling. Finally, the court implicitly held that Doe could have filed his petition pro se despite his incarceration. On appeal, we declined to review the merits of the district court’s rulings. We stated that this Court has “not yet determined whether the Constitution requires an actual innocence exception to [AED-PA’s] statute of limitations,” but that we would decide this issue in the context of a case in which the petitioner’s credible showing of actual innocence “compels us to do so.” Doe v. Menefee, 49 Fed.Appx. 340, 341-42 (2d Cir.2002) (unpublished opinion) (“Doe 7”) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Noting that “Doe has presented evidence, the affidavit of his alleged victim, which might well lead a reasonable juror to find him not guilty,” but that “the respondent also has presented extensive evidence undermining the victim’s affidavit,” we remanded the case to the district court to determine whether “Doe has presented a credible claim of actual innocence.” Id. at 342. We also directed the court to consider whether a petitioner must demonstrate that he pursued his claim of actual innocence with reasonable diligence, as is required in asserting other grounds for equitable tolling. Id. Finally, we declined to consider Doe’s arguments with respect to attorney incompetence and the inadequacy of the prison library. Id. B. The Evidentiary Hearing on Remand On remand, the district court conducted a hearing on the actual innocence issue, after which it determined that Doe had “established his innocence by a preponderance of the credible evidence.” The court heard testimony from Doe, Edwin, Rich-man, Cronin, Storino, and ADA Greg Bernhard on the issue of actual innocence, and from Peter Gould on the issue of Doe’s reasonable diligence in pursuing his claim. The testimony that is relevant to the disposition of this appeal is summarized below. 1. Doe Doe testified that he met Edwin through Edward R., one of the boys most closely connected with Bagarozy, early in the summer of 1993. Doe assertedly did not realize at the time, however, that Edward R. was sleeping with Bagarozy, and was used by Bagarozy and Federowicz to identify and attract new victims. Although Doe was not very close to Bagarozy and Federowicz and was not aware of the bulk of their activities, he associated with many of the same boys as did the two convicted pedophiles. Doe attributed this overlap in association to the fact that he routinely made himself available to underprivileged boys like Edward R. and Edwin, taking them to arcades, to Nathan’s for hotdogs, and occasionally back to his apartment to watch movies and play video games. On August 13, 1993, the date of the alleged assault, Doe picked up Edwin from the Bronx and drove him, alone, to Doe’s apartment in Tarrytown. Doe had just finished work, and wanted to change into casual clothes before he took Edwin to Sportstime, an arcade. At Doe’s apartment, Edwin waited while Doe changed, and the two were alone in the apartment for perhaps ten minutes. Doe denied having sex with Edwin or having attempted to force him into sexual contact. Doe maintained that even after August 13, Edwin continued to call him and ask to be taken out. They appear to have met just once, though, in July 1994, when Doe, O’Rourke, and Edwin went to Playland Park in Westchester County. Doe stated that Edwin told him that the DA’s Office had approached him with questions about Doe, but that Edwin had denied any improprieties. When questioned as to why he pled guilty to second-degree sodomy when he was innocent of the offense, Doe asserted that he felt coerced into pleading because he was frightened that he would be charged with a more serious offense — and face prison time — if he did not plead. Moreover, Doe was anxious to help the federal government convict Bagarozy and Federowicz, because he had been completely unaware of their more unsavory activities — including having sex with Edward R. and others, and using the boys to make child pornography — and felt betrayed because he himself would not have countenanced such exploitation. Doe believed that if he did not plead guilty to the sodomy offense, the federal prosecutors running the Bagarozy/Federowicz trial would be angry, and that the possibility that he would have to invoke the Fifth Amendment while on the witness stand could jeopardize his ability to function as a cooperator. Doe also attempted to explain his admission at the September 1993 proffer session that he had had sex with Edwin by stating that he had “panicked” when asked about Edwin. He stated that the proffer was held “in a small, airless, windowless room” “at the end of the summer ... [and] it was extremely hot.” Doe was worried that he “was not going to be able to explain to these agents ... what [his] role in [the Boy Lovers] was, which was not a criminal role,” and he therefore “lied” and stated that he had had sex with Edwin. 2. Edwin Edwin’s testimony roughly corroborated Doe’s, although the two accounts vary in some respects. Edwin stated that he was never alone with Doe in Doe’s apartment, and had never had sexual contact, consensual or forcible, with Doe. Edwin was approached by the DA’s Office in early 1994, and went to one meeting with ADA Cronin. He recalled that Cronin was the only person involved in the interview until a man came in towards the end, but he admitted that his recollection of the particulars of the interviews was unclear. Cronin asked Edwin if Doe ever “gave [him] money for sexual favors or anything like that,” and Edwin replied that no sexual contact had ever occurred. With respect to his larger involvement with the circle of Boy Lovers, Edwin testified that he played on a basketball team organized by Bagarozy, and knew of O’Rourke through Bagarozy but had never met him. He further testified that Bagar-ozy invited him to a nude beach once, but he refused. None of the men ever gave Edwin money or other financial assistance. Edwin learned that Doe had been convicted of an offense involving the August 1993 incident when Edwin was incarcerated at Rikers Island in 1998. There, Edwin was approached by Edward R.’s brother, Angel R., who had been closely associated with O’Rourke and was known as one of the Boy Lovers’ main boys. Angel R. told Edwin that Doe was “in jail because of’ Edwin, leading Edwin to attempt to contact Doe. Doe refused to speak with Edwin because of an order of protection arising from the 1995 conviction, but soon after Edwin attempted to initiate contact, Doe sent a private investigator to speak to Edwin. Doe’s attorney then generated an affidavit that Edwin signed, asserting that he had never told the DA’s Office that Doe assaulted him. Doe also retained an attorney for Edwin, ostensibly to protect Edwin against “pressure” from the DA’s Office. Finally, Edwin maintained that he was not promised anything in exchange for his testimony at the hearing; he was willing to testify because “the truth needs to be told.” 3. Elizabeth Cronin Cronin recounted her interviews with Edwin after refreshing her recollection with the notes that she took during the interviews. Cronin testified that of seven pages of notes, the first four, dated March 18, 1994, were taken during her second interview with Edwin. The next two pages, undated, were taken during the first interview, and the last page of notes may have been taken later, when Cronin was preparing for a proceeding. The notes were then offered into evidence, and are included in the record. According to Cronin, the DA’s Office conducted two interviews with Edwin because it was standard practice to conduct at least two interviews when dealing with a child victim. ADA Greg Bernhard, who had handled the investigation until the DA’s Office decided to transfer the prosecution to the Special Prosecutions Division, was also present for both interviews. During the first interview, Cronin elicited general information about Edwin’s relationship with Doe and how the two had met. The second interview covered the alleged sexual contact and its aftermath. Cronin stated that Edwin had met Doe through Edward R. in early summer, and that Doe would drive Edwin to various places. Sometimes Doe would attempt to touch Edwin’s groin in the car. At some point before the alleged contact that formed the basis of the sodomy charge, Edwin, unaccompanied by any other boys, was playing on the computer in a back room in Doe’s apartment when Doe came up behind him and attempted to put his hands down Edwin’s pants. Doe told Edwin to stand up, and when Edwin struggled, Doe carried Edwin into the bedroom. When Edwin continued to struggle, Doe became angry and threatened not to drive Edwin home. On August 13, 1993, Edwin again accompanied Doe back to his apartment. Doe’s advances began as they had on the earlier occasion but went further this time; once Doe had maneuvered Edwin onto the bed, he pulled Edwin’s pants down and put his mouth around Edwin’s penis. Edwin pushed Doe’s hands away and kicked him, and Doe retreated. Doe later accused Edwin of having provoked Doe into coming on to him, and gave Edwin $50 or $60. Cronin asked Edwin why he had accompanied Doe to his apartment after the first incident, which itself had involved an element of compulsion, and Edwin answered that he had thought that because he had made it clear to Doe that he did not like the advances, Doe would not come on to him again. In accordance with standard practice, Cronin also asked Edwin to describe Doe’s apartment in detail, in order to verify that Edwin had actually been there. Cronin was later able to verify Edwin’s description with Storino’s and Bernhard’s knowledge of the apartment, based on their search of the property. Based on the interviews with Edwin, the DA’s Office decided to charge Doe with a sex offense, and Cronin contacted Doe’s attorney, Murray Richman, to discuss the charges. Cronin told Richman that the DA’s Office believed it had sufficient evidence to charge Doe with forcible sodomy, a Class B felony that would carry a sentence of prison time, but that because Doe was cooperating with the federal government in the Bagarozy and Federowicz trial, the DA’s Office was willing to consider charging Doe with second-degree sodomy, a Class D felony that would probably result in a sentence of probation. 4. Greg Bernhard ADA Bernhard, who supervised the wiretaps and the search for Edwin and was present at Cronin’s interviews, corroborated Cronin’s testimony in its entirety. Bernhard testified that he had not reviewed Cronin’s interview notes in preparation for his testimony, because he remembered the interviews “vividly.” Bernhard had not expected Edwin to describe the sexual contact as forcible, because the wiretapped conversations had created the impression that because Doe paid him, Edwin was a willing participant in the encounter. When asked to describe what allegedly occurred during Edwin’s second visit to Doe’s apartment, Bernhard stated that Edwin told him and Cronin that he was playing computer games and that, while he was on the computer, Doe began grabbing at his legs and trying to turn him from the computer. Eventually Doe pulled Edwin off of the chair, threw him onto the bed, pulled his pants down, and put his mouth on Edwin’s penis. Edwin kicked Doe and told him to stop. 5. Investigator Pat Storino Finally, Storino testified as to his investigation into Edwin’s whereabouts and the process by which the DA’s Office learned of Edwin and the potential crime. Although the wiretaps’ were joint federal-state endeavors, no representative of the DA’s Office was present at the September 15 proffer session in which Doe admitted to having sex with Edwin. The DA’s Office’s investigation into the incident was therefore conducted, at least at first, without knowledge of Doe’s admission that he had sex with Edwin. Storino also testified that Special Agent Kyle contacted him in February and relayed Doe’s statements that Edwin had been coached on what to say to the authorities, and had promised not to divulge any incriminating information. C. The District Court’s Findings and Conclusions Following the hearing, the district court issued an order detailing its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court analyzed the testimony in light of its conception of the standard for demonstrating actual innocence, stating that “the standard ■ of proof is at the lowest possible level. Innocence need only be demonstrated to be more likely than unlikely.” The district court found Edwin’s testimony credible in its entirety, as Edwin was “forthright ... and responsive” in answering questions. The court concluded that although Edwin had “socialized” with Doe and other Boy Lovers, he “had not personally engaged in any sexual activity with Doe or any other man.” Because crediting Edwin’s accounts of what he had said during his interviews with Cronin required that the court discount or discredit Cronin’s and Bernhard’s directly conflicting -testimony, the court concluded that Cronin’s recollection was based primarily on her notes, “at least some of which are not contemporaneous records.” Thus, although the court explicitly refused to make an adverse credibility determination with respect to Cronin, it found that Edwin’s testimony was entitled to more weight. The court did not analyze or acknowledge the implications of Bernhard’s testimony, however. Turning to Doe’s testimony, the court credited Doe’s account of his relationship with Edwin and his explanations of his previous inconsistent statements. The court placed weight on the fact that although Edwin stated that he was never alone with Doe in his apartment, Doe admitted to having been alone with Edwin once, an inconsistency that the court believed suggested Doe’s forthrightness. The court also concluded that Doe had pled guilty because he was genuinely afraid of receiving jail time if he did not plead, and that his sense of betrayal arising out of Bagarozy’s and Federowicz’s activities made him particularly reluctant to endanger his ability to testify against them by refusing to plead guilty. The court also found Doe’s discharge of Richman just before he pled guilty consistent with Doe’s innocence, because Doe may have been loath to accept Richman’s advice that he plead. This reasoning in turn suggested that Doe’s admission of guilt during his plea allocution was false. Finally, the court found Doe’s statement that he “panicked” at the proffer session and felt compelled to lie about having sex with Edwin “somewhat strained,” but apparently did not feel that Doe’s 1993 admission threw the veracity of his hearing testimony into doubt. The court therefore concluded that Doe had established his innocence by a preponderance of the evidence. It next determined that Doe had exercised reasonable diligence in pursuing the claim of actual innocence, but reiterated its initial conclusion that AEDPA does not allow tolling for actual innocence, and the Suspension Clause does not require such an exception to AEDPA’s limitations period. DISCUSSION Doe challenges the district court’s ruling that AEDPA’s limitations period cannot be tolled based on a credible claim of actual innocence as well as its February 2002 rulings that Doe’s claims of attorney incompetence and prison library inadequacy were insufficient to toll the limitations period. Doe argues that each of these grounds entitles him to equitable tolling, and that he therefore should have the opportunity to have his constitutional claims adjudicated on the merits. Although AEDPA does not provide that its limitations period may be tolled for any reason other than the pendency of a state post-conviction motion, see 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2), in “rare and exceptional circumstances” a petitioner may invoke the courts’ power to equitably toll the limitations period. Smith v. McGinnis, 208 F.3d 13, 17 (2d Cir.2000) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). To qualify for such treatment, the petitioner must establish that “extraordinary circumstances prevented him from filing his petition on time,” and that he “acted with reasonable diligence throughout the period he seeks to toll.” Id. We have established only a limited number of circumstances that may merit equitable tolling, such as where an attorney’s conduct is so outrageous and incompetent that it is truly extraordinary, see Baldayaque, 338 F.3d at 152, and where prison officials intentionally obstruct a petitioner’s ability to file his petition by confiscating his legal papers, see Valverde v. Stinson, 224 F.3d 129, 133-34 (2d Cir.2000). We have specifically reserved the -question of whether a claim of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence constitutes an extraordinary circumstance that merits equitable tolling, however, as well as the question of whether the Constitution would require equitable tolling for actual innocence. See Lucidore v. New York State Div. of Parole, 209 F.3d 107, 114 (2d Cir.2000). With respect to" Doe’s claim of actual innocence, we hold that the district court misapprehended the standard for determining actual innocence as it is delineated in governing Supreme Court case law, and that its findings with respect to the credibility of Doe’s and Edwin’s hearing testimony were clearly erroneous. In adherence to our repeated statements that we will decide whether equitable tolling is available on the basis of actual innocence only in a cáse in which the petitioner has made a credible claim of actual innocence, therefore, we do not reach Doe’s arguments that various constitutional provisions require that AEDPA’s limitations period be tolled for actual innocence. With respect to the attorney incompetence issue, we agree with the district court’s conclusion that Doe did not exercise reasonable diligence during the period that he seeks to have: tolled. Finally, we affirm the district court’s ruling that the purported inadequacies of the library of the prison in which Doe was incarcerated do not provide a basis for tolling the limitations period, as Doe has not established that the library lacked adequate resources for him to prepare his state post-conviction motion. I. Tolling for Actual Innocence The doctrine of actual innocence was developed to mitigate the potential harshness of the judicial limitations placed on a petitioner’s ability to file successive or otherwise procedurally defaulted habeas petitions in the federal courts. See Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 318-21, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995) (describing development of limitations on the writ of habeas corpus and establishing contours of actual innocence exception). Prior to AEDPA’s passage, procedural limitations on the right to seek habeas relief were judicially created to prevent the erosion of the values of comity and finality, which were threatened by repeated federal examination of state convictions. These procedural limitations were crafted and applied as equitable limitations that could yield in the face of countervailing considerations. See id. at 320-21, 115 S.Ct. 851. Thus, where a petitioner appears to be the “victim[ ] of a fundamental miscarriage of justice,” the principles of comity and finality must yield to the imperative of federal judicial review of the conviction. See Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 495-96, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986). Accordingly, in a series of decisions, the Supreme Court established that prisoners may obtain federal habeas review, despite their state procedural default or previous federal habeas petitions, if they can demonstrate cause for the default and resulting prejudice. See, e.g., McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467, 494, 111 S.Ct. 1454, 113 L.Ed.2d 517 (1991) (establishing cause and prejudice standard in cases where petitioner is accused of abusing the writ); Francis v. Henderson, 425 U.S. 536, 542, 96 S.Ct. 1708, 48 L.Ed.2d 149 (1976) (establishing cause and prejudice standard for federal review following state procedural default). An independent category of cases in which petitioners may suffer miscarriages of justice if they are procedurally barred from, filing habeas petitions is composed of those cases in which the petitioners claim that they are actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. Thus, “in an extraordinary case, where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent, a federal habeas court may grant the writ even in the absence of a showing of cause for the procedural default.” Carrier, 477 U.S. at 496, 106 S.Ct. 2639. Because credible claims of actual innocence are “extremely rare,” federal court adjudication of constitutional challenges by petitioners who may be actually innocent prevents miscarriages of justice, but does not threaten state interests in finality. Schlup, 513 U.S. at 321-22, 115 S.Ct. 851. Accordingly, a petitioner may use his claim of actual innocence as a “gateway,” or a means of excusing his procedural default, that enables him to obtain review of his constitutional challenges to his conviction. See id. at 315-17, 115 S.Ct. 851. This remains the case after AEDPA, which codifies the actual innocence doctrine, with modifications not relevant here, as it applies to successive petitions and state procedural defaults. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b); 2254(e)(2). Because AEDPA’s one-year limitations period protects the same values of comity and finality as do the procedural limits on successive and defaulted petitions, see Acosta v. Artuz, 221 F.3d 117, 122-23 (2d Cir.2000), it is not surprising that several habeas petitioners have attempted to argue that considerations of justice mandate adopting the actual innocence gateway as a means of tolling AEDPA’s limitations period. See, e.g., Whitley v. Senkowski, 317 F.3d 223, 225-26 (2d Cir.2003). We have not yet decided this question, reasoning that we should decide whether the Constitution requires tolling for innocence only in a case in which the petitioner can show that, because he can demonstrate his actual innocence, he would be injured if not entitled to tolling on this basis. See Lucidore, 209 F.3d at 113-14. Thus, we have instructed district courts faced with untimely petitions in which the petitioner asserts his or her actual innocence to determine, in each case, whether the petitioner has presented a credible claim of actual innocence before ruling on the legal issues of whether such a showing provides a basis for equitable tolling and whether the petitioner must also demonstrate that he or she pursued his or her claim with reasonable diligence. See Whitley, 317 F.3d at 225. Because the interests that must be balanced in creating an exception to the statute of limitations are identical to those implicated in the procedural default context, we see no reason not to apply the Schlup standard in the tolling context. Indeed, we have previously assumed that if actual innocence does provide a basis for tolling the limitations period, Schlup’s delineation of the evidentiary showing necessary to demonstrate actual innocence would apply in evaluating whether the petitioner had made a credible showing of actual innocence. See Lucidore, 209 F.3d at 114 (applying the Schlup standard and holding that petitioner had ■ not demonstrated actual innocence). The Schlup Court carefully limited the type of evidence on which an actual innocence claim may be based and crafted a demanding standard that petitioners must meet in order to take advantage of the gateway. The petitioner must support his claim “with new reliable evidence — whether it be exculpatory scientific evidence, trustworthy eyewitness accounts, or critical physical evidence — that was not presented at trial.” Schlup, 513 U.S. at 324, 115 S.Ct. 851. Because Schlup explicitly states that the proffered evidence must be reliable, the habeas court must determine whether the new evidence is trustworthy by considering it both on its own merits and, where appropriate, in light of the preexisting evidence in the record. See id. at 327-28, 115 S.Ct. 851. Once it has been determined that the new evidence is reliable, Schlwp unequivocally requires that reviewing courts consider a petitioner’s claim in light of the evidence in the record as a whole, including evidence that might have been inadmissible at trial: [This] standard is intended to focus the inquiry on actual innocence. In assessing the adequacy of petitioner’s showing ... the district court is not bound by the rules of admissibility that would govern at trial. Instead, the emphasis on “actual innocence” allows the reviewing tribunal also to consider the probative force of relevant evidence that was excluded or unavailable .... [W]e believe that Judge Friendly’s description of the inquiry is appropriate: The habeas court must make its determination concerning the petitioner’s innocence “in light of all the evidence, including that alleged to have been illegally admitted (but with due regard to any unreliability of it) and evidence tenably claimed to have been wrongly excluded or to have become available only after the trial.” Id. (quoting Henry Friendly, Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments, 38 U. Chi. L.Rev. 142, 160 (1970)). Our dissenting colleague asserts that under Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 118 S.Ct. 1604, 140 L.Ed.2d 828 (1998), a court may consider only admissible evidence when assessing the reliability of a claim of actual innocence. We disagree. As Schlup makes clear, the issue before such a court is not legal innocence but factual innocence. Integral to Schlup’s holding is an express command that reviewing courts consider all evidence without regard to its admissibility, while the portion of Bousley relied upon by the dissent is mere dictum. Only after examining all evidence is the court able to determine whether new evidence truly throws the petitioner’s conviction into doubt, or whether it is so overwhelmed by the weight of other evidence that it is insufficient to raise a question as to a petitioner’s factual innocence. If the court then concludes that, in light of all the evidence, it is “more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” a petitioner may invoke the actual innocence gateway and. obtain review of the merits of his claims. Schlup, 513 U.S. at 327, 115 S.Ct. 851. The actual innocence inquiry therefore has a hybrid structure: On the one hand, the court must make its own evaluation of the evidence, free of the strictures of the rules governing a trial, but on the other hand, the standard according to which the court must evaluate that evidence requires the court to determine the verdict that reasonable jurors would probably reach. Because in rare cases a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt may not be synonymous with factual guilt, Schlup recognizes that the reviewing court must do more than reenact a trial of the petitioner; it must be free to evaluate independently all of the evidence, old and new, to determine whether that evidence may show that the petitioner is factually innocent. Because our legal system has no means of defining innocence independently of the finding of reasonable doubt, however, “the analysis must incorporate the understanding that proof beyond a reasonable doubt marks the legal boundary between guilt and innocence.” Schlup, 513 U.S. at 328, 115 S.Ct. 851. This two-step process allows the court to analyze the petitioner’s potential innocence in light of the fact that the petitioner is essentially claiming that the criminal justice process has reached the wrong factual result, whether after a trial or a guilty plea. Thus, taking into account “the probative force of relevant evidence,” the court must consider how reasonable jurors, fairly examining all of the evidence presented, would assess the petitioner’s guilt or innocence. Id. at 327-29, 115 S.Ct. 851. In evaluating the record as a whole, the habe-as court may make its own credibility determinations as to both the new evidence and the evidence already in the record that may be thrown into doubt by the new material. See id. at 330, 115 S.Ct. 851. With respect to the ultimate issue of innocence, however, Schlup does not permit the court to make an independent judgment of whether reasonable doubt exists, but instead requires a “probabilistic determination about what reasonable, properly instructed jurors would do.” Id. at 329, 115 S.Ct. 851. This probabilistic analysis must determine “not merely [whether] ... a reasonable doubt exists in the light of the new evidence,” but rather whether it is more likely than not “that no reasonable juror would have found the defendant guilty.” Id.; see also id. at 333, 115 S.Ct. 851 (O’Connor, J., concurring) (“[A] petitioner does not pass through the [innocence] gateway ... if the district court believes it more likely than not that there is any juror who, acting reasonably, would have found the petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” (emphasis added; internal citation omitted)). Because the determination as to whether no reasonable juror would find a petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is a mixed question of law and fact, we review the district court’s ultimate finding of actual innocence de novo. See United States ex rel. Bell v. Pierson, 267 F.3d 544, 551-52 (7th Cir.2001) (noting that district court must make factual findings with respect to new evidence, but concluding that district court is no better placed than appellate court to make probabilistic determination as to what reasonable juror would find and concluding that review is therefore de novo); cf. Pham v. United States, 317 F.3d 178, 182 (2d Cir.2003) (stating that mixed questions of law and fact presented in a habeas petition are reviewed de novo). We review the district court’s underlying findings of fact under the more deferential clearly erroneous standard. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a); Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). Clear error review permits only limited reexamination of factual findings where “the district court’s account of the evidence is plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety.” Anderson, 470 U.S. at 573-74, 105 S.Ct. 1504. The reviewing court may reverse, however, when, although there is evidence to support the finding, “on the entire evidence [the court] is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” Id. at 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504 (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)). By the same token, although Rule 52(a) “demands even greater deference to the trial court’s” credibility determinations, the district court may not “insulate [its] findings from review by denominating them credibility determinations, for factors other than demeanor and inflection go into the decision whether or not to believe a witness.” Id. at 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504. Thus, reviewing for clear error allows an appellate court to examine the district court’s credibility determinations in light of the evidence in the record as a whole, in order to determine whether the credibility assessment can be reconciled with other evidence: “Documents or objectivé evidence may contradict the witness’ story; or the story itself may be so internally inconsistent or implausible on its face that a reasonable factfinder would not credit it.” Id. Where, however, two witnesses have each told a “coherent and facially plausible story that is not contradicted by extrinsic evidence,” the trial court’s decision to credit one witness over the other, “if not internally inconsistent, can virtually never be clear error.” Id. at 575-76, 105 S.Ct. 1504. We have found a district court’s factual findings to be clearly erroneous where the court has failed to synthesize the evidence in a manner that accounts for conflicting evidence or the gaps in a party’s evidentia-ry presentation. Thus, we have reversed factual findings where the trial court incorrectly assessed the probative value of various pieces of evidence, leading it to rely on speculation, see United States v. Rizzo, 349 F.3d 94, 100-02 (2d Cir.2003), and where the court failed to weigh all of the relevant evidence before making its factual findings, see Ortega v. Duncan, 333 F.3d 102, 107 (2d Cir.2003). Moreover, we have found the trial court’s credibility determinations vulnerable where they were founded on factual inferences that the evidence did not permit. See Krizek v. Cigna Group Ins., 345 F.3d 91, 100-01 (2d Cir.2003). Accord Jiminez v. Mary Washington College, 57 F.3d 369, 380-81 (4th Cir.1995) (reversing district court’s discrediting of five semesters of students’ assertions against a professor denied .tenure as tainted by racial animus and finding that the district court’s conclusion of taint was based on speculation and was inconsistent with the other evidence in the record); Hayes v. Invesco, Inc., 907 F.2d 853, 856-57 (8th Cir.1990) (holding that fact findings were clearly erroneous where the district court misinterpreted some evidence and failed to consider some testimony). A. The District Court’s Factual Findings We hold that the district court’s finding that the hearing testimony of Doe and Edwin constitutes reliable evidence of Doe’s actual innocence was clearly erroneous. While we recognize that district courts are generally best placed to evaluate testimony in light • of the witnesses’ demeanor, credibility determinations are not composed of demeanor evaluations alone. Even where a court finds that a witness appears to be telling the truth, it must, as Anderson recognizes, evaluate the testimony in light of the substance of other evidence, considering the potential motives to be untruthful that the witness may possess, corroboration or the lack thereof, internal consistency, and the inferences or assumptions that crediting particular testimony would require. See Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504. This is particularly true in the context of an actual innocence determination, as Schlup requires the habeas court to determine whether the new evidence on which the actual innocence claim is based is reliable. See Schlup, 513 U.S. at 324, 115 S.Ct. 851. In order to make this assessment where, as here, the new evidence consists entirely of testimony that challenges the facts on which the prosecution relied in obtaining the conviction, the court must carefully consider the nature of the testimony in light of the existing record to determine whether it can be considered reliable. See id. at 327-38, 115 S.Ct. 851; Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504. The court’s conclusion that it believes a witness’s testimony at an evidentiary hearing is only one element of the determination that the testimony constitutes new reliable evidence. The court must then evaluate whether its subjective impression of the testimony can be sustained in light of the record as a whole. Having reviewed the testimony of Doe and Edwin in light of Doe’s prior statements and admissions of guilt and the other evidence in the record, we are left with the “definite and firm conviction” that the district court committed clear error in crediting the testimony. See Anderson, 470 U.S. at 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504. We therefore find that neither Doe’s nor Edwin’s testimony constitutes new reliable evidence. 1. Doe Doe testified that he never attempted to have any sexual contact with Edwin and that his relationship with Edwin consisted solely of taking him to arcades and fast food restaurants at Edwin’s behest. The district court’s reasons for finding that Doe’s testimony had the “ring of truth” and crediting it in its entirety were deeply flawed. We therefore find that Doe’s testimony does not constitute reliable evidence of his innocence. As an initial matter, the district court relied on a misinterpretation of the evidence in concluding that the truthfulness of Doe’s hearing testimony was buttressed by his conduct around the time of his guilty plea. The court found that just before Doe pled guilty, he fired his lawyer, Murray Richman, because Richman suggested that Doe plead guilty despite his innocence. The court then inferred that Richman’s firing was consistent with Doe’s claim of innocence. Both Doe and Rich-man testified unequivocally, however, that Doe fired Richman because Richman had incorrectly advised Doe that his 1993 use immunity agreement would prevent all state authorities, including the DA’s Office, from prosecuting him. The district court acknowledged and credited Doe’s testimony on this point, rendering its fact findings internally inconsistent. A.review of the record leads to the conclusion that none of Doe’s conduct during the investigation and around the time of his guilty plea is sufficient to permit the inference that Doe' was actually innocent. The district court therefore should have determined Whether it could credit Doe’s recent protestations of innocence, without more, over his admission during the 1993 federal proffer session that he had sex with Edwin. This analysis requires an examination of the substance of both statements, as well as Doe’s motives during each proceeding, and the persuasiveness of his current explanation of his 1993 admission. In the federal proffer session, Doe gave a detailed account of the activities of fellow Boy Lovers O’Rourke, Bagarozy, and Fed-erowicz, as well as their various “main squeezes” and shared victims. In this context, Doe stated that he had had sex with Edwin, who was also one of O’Rourke’s boys, and that the sex “included oral copulation and masturbation” and took place at Doe’s apartment in July or August of 1993. He later testified under oath at the Bagar-ozy trial that all of his statements at the proffer session were true. In contrast, Doe asserted at the hearing that these statements were false, because he had “panicked” when asked about Edwin during the proffer session and had felt compelled to state, untruthfully, that he had had sex with Edwin. The district court found this explanation “somewhat strained,” an assessment with which we agree. Prior to being asked about Edwin, Doe detailed his fantasies about various boys in the choir that he led, but was capable of denying attempting to seduce or molest them. Doe also described traveling to Maryland to have sex with young boys and provided graphic details about various sexual encounters with boys, but denied participating, along with other Boy Lovers, in the filming of certain boys. Thus, it is evident that Doe admitted extensive criminal conduct but, under the same or similar circumstances, was completely capable of denying certain other criminal acts, and did not feel compelled to implicate himself in a wider range of misconduct. Edwin’s hearing testimony that he never had sex with Doe also does not provide a basis for discounting Doe’s 1993 admission of guilt. Because Doe does not dispute that he admitted in 1993 having sex with Edwin, Edwin’s testimony that no sex act took place does not explain why Doe would admit the sex act to the authorities even though it had assertedly not actually occurred. For the same reason, Edwin’s testimony does not make Doe’s explanation that he panicked at the proffer session any more persuasive. Moreover, the potential for Edwin’s testimony to corroborate Doe’s hearing testimony and render Doe’s prior admission of guilt less likely to be true depends on the credibility of Edwin’s hearing testimony, and as is discussed below, Edwin’s testimony on this issue is not reliable. Doe had little motive to lie about his contact with Edwin in the proffer session, because the focus of the session was on Doe’s knowledge of the other Boy Lovers’ activities, and, at the time, Doe was facing a potential prosecution on federal child pornography charges, but not, as far as he knew, on sexual conduct charges. Doe’s own conduct with Edwin or any other boys was at most an ancillary issue that, given the wealth of information that he supplied about several other Boy Lovers during the session, would have had little bearing on the authorities’ impression of Doe’s overall knowledge and potential usefulness as a cooperator. Doe therefore had no motive to attempt to incriminate himself by asserting falsely that he had had sex with Edwin. Indeed, given that the use immunity provided as an incident to the proffer session would not prevent the authorities from using Doe’s statements against him in cross-examination or substantively to rebut his testimony, Doe had no reason to exaggerate his personal criminal conduct. In contrast, Doe had ample motive to lie at his habeas hearing. Doe failed to file a state collateral challenge to his state conviction or assert his innocence until it appeared that the conviction would adversely affect his federal sentencing. Now he admittedly seeks to avoid the onerous requirements imposed by New York’s Sex Offender Registration Act, N.Y. Correct. L. § 168 et seq., by having this felony sodomy conviction vacated. Doe has every reason to maintain that he never had sex with Edwin. Although this motive to lie might not be sufficient in itself to discredit Doe’s hearing testimony, that testimony presents a substantially different account of his involvement with the Boy Lovers and his relationship with Edwin than his testimony at the Bagarozy/Federowicz trial and the 1993 proffer session, leading ineluctably to the conclusion that Doe’s hearing testimony is not reliable. At the hearing, Doe repeatedly testified that although he was introduced to Edwin by Edward R., he associated with Edwin not because Edwin was one of the Boy Lovers’ victims, but because Doe enjoyed taking him — and other boys who happened to be victims of the Boy Lovers — to places they enjoyed. Doe also attempted to distance himself from the Boy Lovers’ activities, defining “boy lover” as someone who “prefers to associate” socially with boys, and maintaining that he was not very familiar with Bagaro-zy or his activities. Specifically, Doe asserted that he was not aware that Bagaro-zy was actually having sex with Edward R. and other boys, and that he himself had never used Edward R. to meet other potential victims. Thus, Doe attempted to portray his relationship with Edwin as fairly innocent, and to characterize it as only tangentially related to the Boy Lovers by common friends rather than by actual knowledge or a network of shared sex partners. Doe’s hearing testimony stands in stark contrast to his testimony at the Bagaro-zy/Federowicz trial and his other statements. With respect to his relationship with Edwin, Doe not only admitted at the proffer session to having sex with him, but also stated that Edwin was having sex with Bagarozy and O’Rourke. Moreover, he acknowledged at the Bagarozy trial that he was well aware, by 1993, that Edward R. and his brother were sleeping with Bagar-ozy, and perhaps other Boy Lovers as well. Thus, Doe’s introduction to Edwin did not take place in an innocent context disconnected from the Boy Lovers; rather, it was arranged by a boy through whom Doe and other Boy Lovers had routinely met new victims. These statements are inconsistent with Doe’s attempt at the hearing to present his relationship with Edwin as disconnected from the circle of Boy Lovers and their victims. With respect to his connection to the other Boy Lovers, in prior testimony Doe twice defined “boy lover” as someone who has sex with boys who are under the age of consent, demonstrating both his awareness of the circle’s activities and his own reason for joining the group. Doe also explicitly defined each Boy Lover’s age of preference, leaving no doubt that Doe was aware that he was associating with a circle of pedophiles. Doe stated that in 1984, Doe and Bagarozy both had a sexual relationship with a boy named Tony, and that the two fought over the boy. Finally, Doe asserted that he observed Bagarozy coaching Edward R. on how to deceive investigators in 1991, and that he and Bagarozy took Edward R. to a nude beach in New Jersey. According to his trial testimony, therefore, Doe was both enmeshed in the Boy Lovers’ activities and was close Mends with Bagarozy, with whom he shared underage sex partners, exchanged child pornography, and discussed methods of seducing young boys. In sum, a comparison of all of Doe’s testimonial statements demonstrates that at the hearing Doe attempted to present his relationship with Edwin in a substantially more innocent light, and himself as substantially less involved with the Boy Lovers, than he had in prior testimony. Because Doe does not argue that he lied at the Bagarozy trial, or at the 1993 proffer session, in any respect other than his admission that he had sex with Edwin, the inconsistencies in his testimony can only reasonably indicate that Doe was attempting to present himself in a favorable light at the hearing. Given the stark discrepancies in the testimony, Doe’s blunt admission t