Henderson v. State of Minnesota
- Wilhelmina Wright
- 0:22-cv-00566
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Henderson v. State of Minnesota, Judge Wright granted Henderson permission to pursue his appeal without prepaying costs.
Mike Cordale Henderson may proceed with his appeal without prepaying costs; the order did not change the prior dismissal of his habeas petition as untimely or the Court’s conclusion about a certificate of appealability.
What happened
In Henderson v. State of Minnesota, Mike Cordale Henderson asked to proceed without prepaying costs for his appeal. The appeal followed the dismissal of his habeas petition as untimely.
The court had previously ruled that the petition was plainly late under federal law and that no exception excused the delay. It also concluded that Henderson should not receive permission to appeal the dismissal, but this order addressed only his request to proceed without prepaying costs.
Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright granted Henderson’s application to proceed without prepaying costs on appeal.
The detailed version
- Henderson v. State of Minnesota · No. 0:22-cv-00566
- Wilhelmina Wright
- Nov. 7, 2022
Background
Mike Cordale Henderson sought to appeal this Court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition challenged the validity of two state criminal convictions. The Court had dismissed the petition as untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d), and it had concluded that no equitable doctrine permitted excusing the delay. The Court also agreed that Henderson should not receive a certificate of appealability because the grounds for dismissal were not reasonably debatable.
Legal standard
Under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3), a court may not allow an appeal to proceed without prepayment of costs if it certifies that the appeal is not taken in good faith. An appeal is taken in good faith when the litigant seeks review of an issue that is not frivolous. The Court explained that an appeal is frivolous when it lacks an arguable basis in law or fact, including when it rests on an indisputably meritless legal theory.
Ruling
Although the Court remained satisfied that Henderson’s petition was untimely and that he should not receive a certificate of appealability, it granted Henderson’s application to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal. The Court stated that this avoided foreclosing any argument Henderson might make and recognized that he could renew his request for a certificate of appealability before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright entered the order on November 7, 2022.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.