SHOVE v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Background

Theodore Shove, identified in the caption as G11092, is a California state prisoner on death row at San Quentin State Prison. The opinion states that his conviction and sentence resulted from a 2008 judgment by the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Shove filed, without a lawyer, a petition asking a federal court to review that conviction and sentence.

Shove initially filed the petition in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. That court transferred the case to the Northern District of California under 28 U.S.C. § 2241(d) because Shove was confined at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, which is within the Northern District’s venue.

Venue and Transfer

The court explained that a petition challenging a conviction or sentence may generally be heard either in the federal district where the prisoner is confined or in the district where the conviction occurred. It also noted that petitions challenging a conviction or sentence are preferably heard in the district of conviction rather than in the district of confinement.

Because Shove challenged a conviction and sentence from the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Northern District of California ordered the petition transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) and Habeas Local Rule 2254-3(b) to the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division, in the interest of justice.

Disposition

The court ordered that the petition be transferred to the Central District of California, Western Division. The order did not address the merits of Shove’s challenge to his conviction or sentence.