Kishor v. Matteson
- Kandis Westmore
- 4:21-cv-05027
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Kishor v. Matteson, Judge Westmore transferred a health-related prison-release habeas petition to California’s Eastern District and terminated pending motions.
Chandra Kishor’s habeas petition was transferred to the Eastern District of California, and all pending motions were terminated on the Northern District’s docket; the order did not resolve the petition’s merits.
What happened
In Kishor v. Matteson, Chandra Kishor, a California state prisoner proceeding without a lawyer, sought expedited release through a federal petition because of health conditions and COVID-19 conditions at the prison.
The court said the case belonged in the Eastern District of California because both the prison and the Sacramento County court that convicted and sentenced Kishor are there.
Judge Kandis A. Westmore ordered the action transferred to the Eastern District under federal venue rules and terminated all pending motions on the Northern District’s docket.
The detailed version
- Kishor v. Matteson · No. 4:21-cv-05027
- Kandis Westmore
- July 30, 2021
Background
Chandra Kishor, an inmate at California State Prison, Solano, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 seeking expedited release. He said that underlying health conditions made him susceptible to COVID-19 and that the prison’s COVID-19 protocols were unsafe and inadequate. Kishor was convicted and sentenced in Sacramento County Superior Court.
Venue analysis
The court explained that a state prisoner’s federal habeas petition may be filed in either the federal district where the prisoner is confined or the district where the prisoner was convicted. The court also may transfer the petition to the proper district in the interest of justice. Because California State Prison, Solano, and Sacramento County are both in the Eastern District of California, the court concluded that the Eastern District was the proper venue. The court stated that this would also be true if Kishor were challenging his conviction or sentence rather than the conditions related to carrying out his sentence.
Ruling
Judge Kandis A. Westmore ordered the Clerk to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a) and the district’s habeas rule. The order also stated that all pending motions were terminated on the Northern District’s docket. The court did not decide the merits of Kishor’s request for release or his allegations about the prison’s COVID-19 conditions.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.