Torres Jr. v. Cisneros
- Charles Breyer
- 3:22-cv-05740
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Torres Jr. v. Cisneros, Judge Breyer dismissed Torres’s petition without prejudice and denied his request for appointed counsel.
Danny Torres Jr., whose federal challenge to his 1998 conviction and sentence was dismissed without prejudice, and Theresa Cisneros, identified as the warden and respondent.
What happened
Torres Jr. v. Cisneros involved Danny Torres Jr.’s federal petition challenging a 1998 Monterey County conviction and sentence. He had previously filed a petition challenging the same conviction, which was denied on the merits in 2001.
The court dismissed the new petition without prejudice because Torres had not obtained the required authorization from the Ninth Circuit to file a second or successive petition. The court also denied his motion for appointment of counsel as moot and for lack of merit.
Judge Breyer ordered the clerk to terminate the motion and close the case. The order was dated November 22, 2022.
The detailed version
- Torres Jr. v. Cisneros · No. 3:22-cv-05740
- Charles Breyer
- Nov. 22, 2022
Background
Danny Torres Jr., a state prisoner incarcerated at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging a 1998 conviction and sentence from Monterey County Superior Court. The opinion states that Torres previously filed a petition challenging that conviction and sentence, and that the earlier petition was denied on the merits on January 12, 2001. Torres also moved for appointment of counsel.
Reason for Dismissal
A second or successive petition is a later federal challenge to the same state-court judgment. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A), a petitioner must first obtain authorization from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit before filing such a petition in the district court. The court found that Torres had not obtained that authorization.
The court therefore dismissed the petition without prejudice to refiling if Torres obtains the necessary Ninth Circuit authorization. This ruling did not decide the merits of Torres’s new challenge to his conviction or sentence.
Motion for Appointment of Counsel and Disposition
The court denied Torres’s motion for appointment of counsel as moot and for lack of merit. The clerk was instructed to terminate the motion and close the case. Judge Charles R. Breyer signed the order on November 22, 2022.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.