Kirkland v. United States

Background

Tarence Kirkland filed a petition challenging his September 1, 2017 state-court judgment of conviction. He initially filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a statute generally used to challenge a federal conviction or sentence, but the court treated his filing as a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 because it challenged a state-court conviction.

In an order dated December 2, 2024, the court denied the petition because Kirkland had already served the entire sentence imposed by the challenged judgment. The court also directed him to submit a written declaration showing that he was still in custody under that judgment when he began the case.

Court’s Analysis

Kirkland filed several additional submissions, but they did not show that he was in custody under the judgment when he initiated the proceeding. One submission included a September 19, 2022 letter from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision stating that Kirkland “no longer owes any time to and is no longer under the jurisdiction” of that agency.

Because Kirkland was no longer in custody under the September 1, 2017 judgment, the court concluded that the action could not proceed. This was a threshold ruling about the court’s authority to consider the petition, rather than a decision on the underlying constitutional challenge to the conviction.

Disposition

The court dismissed the action. It directed the clerk to terminate the motions docketed at ECF 17, ECF 21, and ECF 22, and to enter judgment. The court also stated that the petition made no substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability. It certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying fees for purposes of an appeal.