Moreno v. Allison
- Jacquelyn Corley
- 3:22-cv-03612
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Moreno v. Allison, Judge Corley transferred Jesse Moreno’s state-conviction petition to the Eastern District of California because Fresno County was the conviction venue.
Jesse Moreno’s petition challenging his Fresno County Superior Court conviction was transferred from the Northern District of California to the Eastern District of California. His request to proceed without paying the filing fee was left for the Eastern District to decide.
What happened
Moreno v. Allison involved Jesse Moreno, a California prisoner without a lawyer, who filed a petition challenging his Fresno County Superior Court conviction. The petition was filed in the Northern District of California.
The court explained that a state-conviction petition may be filed where the prisoner is held or where the conviction occurred. Because Fresno County is in the Eastern District of California, the court determined that the Eastern District was the proper venue and transferred the case there in the interest of justice.
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ordered the transfer. She deferred Moreno’s request to proceed without paying the filing fee to the Eastern District and directed the clerk to terminate that motion from the Northern District’s docket and transfer the matter promptly.
The detailed version
- Moreno v. Allison · No. 3:22-cv-03612
- Jacquelyn Corley
- July 11, 2022
Background
Jesse Moreno, a California prisoner proceeding without an attorney, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. A habeas petition is a request for federal court review of the legality of a person’s custody. Moreno’s petition challenged the validity of his conviction in Fresno County Superior Court. The defendant is Kathleen Allison.
Venue analysis
The court relied on 28 U.S.C. § 2241(d), which allows a state-prisoner habeas petition to be filed in either the federal district where the prisoner is confined or the federal district where the prisoner was convicted. The statute also allows the filing court to transfer the petition to the other district in the interest of justice.
The court stated that federal courts in California have traditionally heard petitions challenging a conviction or sentence in the district where the conviction occurred. Because Moreno challenged his conviction, the court determined that the proper venue was the district containing the place of conviction. Fresno County is within the Eastern District of California.
Ruling
Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ordered that the case be transferred to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. The court deferred Moreno’s application to proceed without paying the filing fee to the Eastern District. It also directed the clerk to terminate that motion from the Northern District’s docket, identified as docket number 4, and to transfer the matter promptly. The order did not decide whether Moreno’s conviction was valid.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.