Hedgepeth v. Madden
- Beth Freeman
- 5:20-cv-00858
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Hedgepeth v. Madden, Judge Freeman denied Hasson Hedgepeth’s request for permission to appeal and to reopen his habeas case.
Hasson Hedgepeth, whose request for a certificate of appealability and to reopen the case was denied.
What happened
In Hedgepeth v. Madden, Hasson Hedgepeth asked the court for permission to appeal and to reopen his case so he could submit more arguments. He said he had filed an earlier request that received no response.
The court had already denied his challenge to his state conviction on the merits and had denied permission to appeal. It denied the new motion because there was no good reason to reconsider that decision. The court also found that Hedgepeth’s filing was not a valid notice of appeal and that the deadline to appeal had passed.
Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered that the motion be denied and closed the docket entry concerning it.
The detailed version
- Hedgepeth v. Madden · No. 5:20-cv-00858
- Beth Freeman
- Nov. 29, 2022
Background
Hasson Hedgepeth, a state prisoner representing himself, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his state conviction. On March 14, 2022, the court denied the petition on the merits of its two claims and denied a certificate of appealability, or COA. A COA is the court’s permission to pursue an appeal from the denial of a habeas petition.
On November 10, 2022, Hedgepeth filed a motion asking for a COA and to reopen the case so he could provide additional briefing. He said that he had filed an earlier COA motion in April 2022 but had received no response. The court stated that the docket showed no such filing; the only filing after judgment was a change-of-address notice filed on May 2, 2022.
Court’s analysis
The court explained that it had already considered and denied a COA after finding that reasonable judges would not debate whether the court’s assessment of Hedgepeth’s constitutional claims was wrong or open to serious disagreement. It found no good cause to consider the issue again and denied the motion.
The court also addressed Hedgepeth’s reference to a notice of appeal. A notice of appeal must identify the appellant, the judgment or order being appealed, and the court to which the appeal is taken. The court found that Hedgepeth’s filing did not meet those requirements and therefore was not a valid notice of appeal. The court further stated that the 30-day deadline to appeal the March 14, 2022 judgment had passed. It noted that Hedgepeth had not made a formal request for an extension of time based on excusable neglect or good cause.
Disposition
Judge Beth Labson Freeman denied the motion for a certificate of appealability and to reopen. The order terminated Docket No. 38.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.