Cloyd v. Burton
- Susan Illston
- 3:19-cv-03119
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Cloyd v. Burton, Judge Illston transferred Cloyd’s sentence-execution challenge to the Eastern District of California as the preferred venue.
Michael Cloyd’s federal challenge to the execution of his sentence was moved from the Northern District of California to the Eastern District of California; the opinion does not decide the challenge itself.
What happened
In Cloyd v. Burton, Michael Cloyd challenged the refusal of California’s parole board to set a term of years for his prison sentence, which was 15 years to life plus three years.
Cloyd was incarcerated at a prison in San Joaquin County, within the Eastern District of California. The court explained that a sentence-execution challenge is preferably reviewed in the district where the person is confined.
Judge Susan Illston ordered the case transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The court did not decide the challenge’s merits.
The detailed version
- Cloyd v. Burton · No. 3:19-cv-03119
- Susan Illston
- Sept. 23, 2019
Background Michael Cloyd, who was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging the Board of Parole Hearings’ refusal to set a term of years for his 15-years-to-life-plus-three-years prison sentence. The opinion describes this as a challenge to how his sentence was being carried out. Cloyd was incarcerated at Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, in San Joaquin County.
Venue analysis The court stated that a federal habeas case may be heard either in the district where the person is confined or in the district where the conviction occurred. It concluded that the district of confinement was the preferable forum for reviewing a challenge to the execution of a sentence. Because Cloyd was confined in the Eastern District of California, the court transferred the case under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) and the applicable habeas venue rule.
Ruling The court ordered the action transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California and directed the clerk to transfer the matter. Judge Susan Illston did not rule on the merits of Cloyd’s challenge.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.