Howell
- Jacquelyn Corley
- 3:20-cv-03250
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Howell v. Warden, Judge Corley transferred Ronnie E. Howell’s state-conviction habeas petition to California’s Eastern District, deferring his fee application.
Ronnie E. Howell’s federal challenge to his Fresno County conviction was transferred from the Northern District of California to the Eastern District of California; his application to proceed without paying filing fees was left for that court to decide.
What happened
In Howell v. Warden, Ronnie E. Howell, a California prisoner without a lawyer, filed a petition challenging his Fresno County conviction. He filed it under a federal law allowing challenges to state convictions.
The court explained that petitions challenging a conviction are generally heard in the federal district where the conviction occurred. Because Fresno County is in the Eastern District of California, the court decided that district was the proper venue.
Judge Jacquelyn Corley transferred the case to the Eastern District of California and deferred deciding Howell’s application to proceed without paying filing fees. The court did not decide whether Howell’s conviction was valid.
The detailed version
- Howell · No. 3:20-cv-03250
- Jacquelyn Corley
- May 26, 2020
Background
Ronnie E. Howell, a California prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging the validity of a conviction from Fresno County Superior Court.
Venue analysis
The court explained that a state-prisoner petition challenging a conviction may be filed in either the federal district where the prisoner is confined or the federal district where the conviction occurred. Those districts have concurrent jurisdiction, meaning both may have authority to consider the petition, but the filing court may transfer the case when doing so serves the interests of justice.
The court stated that federal courts in California traditionally hear challenges to convictions or sentences in the district where the conviction occurred. Fresno County is within the Eastern District of California, so the court determined that the Eastern District was the proper venue for Howell’s petition.
Ruling
Judge Jacquelyn Corley ordered that the case be transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. The court deferred ruling on Howell’s application to proceed without paying filing fees to that court and directed the clerk to transfer the matter immediately. The opinion did not address the validity of Howell’s conviction or the merits of his petition.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.