Causey v. Alameda County Superior Court
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:22-cv-00265
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Causey v. Alameda County Superior Court, Judge Rogers dismissed Lamar Causey’s unexhausted petition challenging state custody without prejudice and denied a certificate of appealability.
Lamar Causey’s federal petition was dismissed without prejudice; the order stated that he may re-file after exhausting his claims in state court.
What happened
In Causey v. Alameda County Superior Court, Lamar Causey filed a petition challenging his state-court custody in federal court. The court said he had not presented his claims to the California Supreme Court.
The court gave Causey a chance to show that he had completed that state process or to file an amended petition presenting exhausted claims. He did not respond by the deadline or otherwise contact the court.
Judge Yvonne Rogers dismissed the petition without prejudice, allowing it to be filed again after the claims are exhausted. The judge also denied a certificate of appealability and directed the clerk to close the case.
The detailed version
- Causey v. Alameda County Superior Court · No. 4:22-cv-00265
- Yvonne Rogers
- May 10, 2022
Background
Lamar Causey proceeded without a lawyer and filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his state-court custody. The court ordered him to explain why the case should not be dismissed because he had not exhausted his state-court remedies. Causey’s petition stated that he had not appealed his conviction in state court. He did not respond to the court’s order or otherwise communicate with the court after the response deadline passed.
Court’s Analysis
Federal law generally requires a person seeking federal review of state custody to present each claim to the state’s highest court before asking a federal court to consider it. The court explained that a petition containing only claims that have not been exhausted must be dismissed. The court determined that Causey appeared to have filed a fully unexhausted petition and had not shown otherwise or amended it to raise exhausted claims.
Ruling
Judge Yvonne Rogers dismissed the petition without prejudice. The order stated that Causey may re-file it once the claims have been exhausted. The court also denied a certificate of appealability because reasonable judges would not debate the result, and directed the clerk to close the file.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.