Barnes v. Orozco
- William Orrick
- 3:21-cv-03658
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
Barnes v. Orozco: Judge Orrick dismissed Barnes’s habeas action because his requested relief would not affect his incarceration.
Antoine Deshawn Barnes and the respondents, including the persons named in the petition; the petition also sought criminal charges against television journalists at KTVU.
What happened
In Barnes v. Orozco, Antoine Deshawn Barnes filed a federal petition challenging his incarceration, but asked the court to have television journalists at KTVU arrested and criminally charged.
The court said that request would not affect the length of Barnes’s incarceration, so it was not a proper subject for a habeas case. The court also declined to treat the petition as a civil-rights complaint because the named respondents were not state actors.
Judge William H. Orrick dismissed the federal habeas action, directed the Clerk to terminate pending motions, enter judgment for the respondents, and close the file. The court granted Barnes’s request to proceed without paying the filing fee.
The detailed version
- Barnes v. Orozco · No. 3:21-cv-03658
- William Orrick
- June 22, 2021
Background
Antoine Deshawn Barnes filed this federal action as a petition for habeas corpus, a procedure used to challenge the lawfulness or duration of a person’s incarceration. The petition asked the court to have television journalists at KTVU arrested and brought up on criminal charges.
Court’s Analysis
The court explained that success on Barnes’s request would not affect the length of his incarceration. It therefore concluded that the request was not a proper subject for a habeas action. The court also noted that, in an appropriate case, a habeas petition may be treated as a civil-rights complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It concluded that this was not such a case because the persons named as respondents were not state actors. The available opinion text ends after that statement.
Ruling
Judge William H. Orrick ordered that the federal habeas action be dismissed. The Clerk was directed to terminate all pending motions, enter judgment in favor of the respondents, and close the file. The court granted Barnes’s motion to proceed without paying the filing fee.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.