Michel v. Lilly
- Laura Swain
- 1:25-cv-01023
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Michel v. Lilly, Judge Swain dismissed Garry Michel’s apparently duplicate habeas petition without prejudice because another case was pending.
Garry Michel’s habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice; his apparently identical petition under docket number 25-CV-0921 remained pending.
What happened
In Michel v. Lilly, Garry Michel, who is incarcerated and representing himself, filed a petition asking the court to review his 2019 Orange County conviction. The petition was brought under a federal law allowing challenges to state convictions.
The court found that Michel had already filed an apparently identical petition challenging the same conviction. That earlier petition remained pending under docket number 25-CV-0921, so the court dismissed this petition without prejudice to that pending case.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment. She also ruled that Michel could not appeal without paying the filing fees, and that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue.
The detailed version
- Michel v. Lilly · No. 1:25-cv-01023
- Laura Swain
- Feb. 5, 2025
Background
Garry Michel, who is incarcerated at Eastern NY Correctional Facility and is representing himself, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. That statute allows a person in state custody to challenge a state conviction in federal court. The petition challenged the same 2019 Orange County conviction addressed in another petition Michel had already submitted to this court.
Reason for Dismissal
The court stated that the earlier petition, docketed as No. 25-CV-0921, was apparently identical and remained pending. Because this petition challenged the same conviction and appeared to have been submitted in error, the court dismissed it without prejudice to Michel’s pending case under No. 25-CV-0921. The opinion did not decide the validity of the conviction or the merits of Michel’s habeas claims.
Additional Rulings
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying the filing fees. It also stated that the petition did not make a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so a certificate of appealability would not issue. Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed the Clerk of Court to enter judgment.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.