Delgado v. Hatton
- Haywood Gilliam
- 4:17-cv-06614
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Delgado v. Hatton, Judge Gilliam granted in part and denied in part Delgado’s request to extend deadlines for appealing and seeking an appeal certificate.
Nelson Carlos Delgado, who received more time to file a notice of appeal and request a certificate of appealability; the underlying petition had already been denied.
What happened
Nelson Carlos Delgado, a prisoner representing himself, filed a petition challenging his custody under federal law. The court had previously denied that petition, denied permission to appeal, and entered judgment for the respondent.
Delgado asked for 60 more days to file a notice of appeal and request permission to appeal. He said he received the court’s earlier order and judgment on November 4, 2020, and had almost no law-library access because of COVID-related restrictions.
The court granted in part and denied in part Delgado’s request, extending the deadline to January 4, 2021, for both filings. Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. stated that no further extension could be granted under the federal appellate rules.
The detailed version
- Delgado v. Hatton · No. 4:17-cv-06614
- Haywood Gilliam
- Dec. 21, 2020
Background
Nelson Carlos Delgado, a prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. On October 29, 2020, the court denied the petition, denied a certificate of appealability—a certificate required to appeal the denial of a § 2254 petition—and entered judgment for the respondent.
The opinion explains that Delgado initially named Shawn Hatton as the respondent. The clerk was directed to substitute Craig Koenig, identified as the current warden and Delgado’s current custodian, under the applicable procedural rules.
Request for More Time
Delgado requested 60 additional days to file a notice of appeal and a request for a certificate of appealability. He stated that he received the order denying his petition and the related judgment on November 4, 2020, and that COVID-related restrictions had made access to the law library almost nonexistent. The court treated the filing as a request to extend both deadlines.
Ruling
The court found that Delgado had shown good cause and had timely requested an extension. It granted in part and denied in part the request and extended the deadline to January 4, 2021, for filing both a notice of appeal and a request for a certificate of appealability. The court stated that the federal appellate rules prohibited any further extension. The order terminated the pending request, Docket No. 40.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.