Jackson v. Pallares
- James Donato
- 3:22-cv-05515
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Jackson v. Pallares, Judge Donato dismissed the habeas petition as unexhausted and denied a certificate of appealability.
Georgie Michelle Jackson’s federal habeas case was dismissed because the court found that her sole claim had not been exhausted in state proceedings; the court also declined to issue a certificate of appealability.
What happened
In Jackson v. Pallares, Georgie Michelle Jackson, a self-represented state prisoner, filed a petition challenging her custody under federal habeas law.
The respondent moved to dismiss because Jackson had not first presented her only claim through the required state process. The court granted that motion and gave Jackson 28 days to ask for a pause so she could pursue exhaustion, but she did not respond or file that request.
Judge James Donato dismissed the case as unexhausted, directed the Clerk to close it, and declined to issue a certificate of appealability for the procedural ruling or the underlying claim.
The detailed version
- Jackson v. Pallares · No. 3:22-cv-05515
- James Donato
- Dec. 21, 2023
Background
Georgie Michelle Jackson, proceeding without a lawyer, is a state prisoner who filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The opinion does not describe the underlying constitutional claim.
Motion and prior ruling
M. Pallares filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that Jackson’s only claim was unexhausted. Exhaustion generally requires a person seeking federal habeas relief to present the claim through the available state-court process before asking a federal court to decide it. The Court granted the motion and gave Jackson 28 days to file a motion to stay the case if she chose to pursue exhaustion. Jackson did not file a stay motion or otherwise communicate with the Court.
Disposition
The Court dismissed the case as unexhausted and requested that the Clerk close it. The Court also declined to issue a certificate of appealability, which is required to appeal the denial of federal habeas relief, because it concluded that the procedural ruling and the underlying claim were not reasonably debatable under the applicable standard.
Judge James Donato entered the order on December 21, 2023.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.