Brewer v. Warden

Background

Kevin Dean Brewer, also identified in the caption as Michael Green, filed a petition challenging his 2009 state convictions for sexual abuse and sexual assault of a child. The opinion states that he received a sentence of 61 years to life. He had previously filed three petitions in the same district challenging those convictions. The first was denied on the merits. His appeals from that case and the later cases were terminated because one appeal was untimely or because the appeals court denied a certificate allowing an appeal.

Reason for dismissal

The court treated the current petition as a second or successive petition. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A), a person seeking to file such a petition must first obtain authorization from the appeals court. Brewer had not shown that he received that authorization. The court therefore dismissed the petition as second or successive and unauthorized, without deciding whether his underlying challenges to the convictions were legally valid.

Other rulings

The court denied Brewer’s application to proceed without paying the filing fee because it lacked the required application form, a certificate of funds, and a prison trust-account statement showing six months of transactions. The court stated that it would reconsider the application if Brewer filed the proper documents.

The court also ruled that a certificate allowing an appeal would not issue. The clerk was directed to identify Marcus Pollard, the warden of the prison where Brewer was housed, as the sole respondent and to terminate the other named respondents. The clerk was further directed to terminate all pending motions, enter judgment in favor of the respondent, and close the case. Judge Liam H. Orrick signed the order.