McDaniel v. Kissa
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:19-cv-10280
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 4
In McDaniel v. Kissa, Judge McMahon denied Curtis McDaniel’s habeas petition without prejudice because he had not exhausted state remedies.
Curtis McDaniel, whose federal habeas petition was denied without prejudice because he had not fully exhausted available New York state-court remedies.
What happened
In McDaniel v. Kissa, Curtis McDaniel, who was incarcerated at the Anna M. Kross Center, filed a self-represented petition challenging his New York criminal proceedings. He said two cases had been dismissed but that he was still being held on bail.
The court found that McDaniel had filed the federal petition before fully pursuing available state-court remedies. The opinion states that he needed to use New York’s appellate procedures, including seeking review in the state’s highest court, before asking the federal court to review his claims.
Judge Colleen McMahon denied the petition without prejudice as prematurely filed, meaning the order did not prevent McDaniel from filing another petition after exhausting state remedies. The court also declined to issue a certificate of appealability and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
The detailed version
- McDaniel v. Kissa · No. 1:19-cv-10280
- Colleen McMahon
- Dec. 19, 2019
Background
Curtis McDaniel, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 seeking federal review of his state-court custody. The caption identifies the respondent as Smalls Kissa. McDaniel stated that he had two criminal cases, numbered 1302-2016 and 860-2019, in New York County Criminal Court, and that both had been dismissed by the motion unit. He also alleged that a judge refused to hear or stamp a filing because she was angry, and that the cases appeared as “voided” in the Rikers Island system while he remained held on bail.
The opinion states that state court records showed McDaniel had been tried and found guilty on December 5, 2019, of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and perjury in the first degree. At the time of the opinion, sentencing was scheduled for January 14, 2020. The petition was filed before that conviction, on November 4, 2019, according to the opinion.
Legal standard
Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, a federal court may review a state prisoner’s claim that custody violates the Constitution, federal laws, or treaties. Before seeking that federal relief, however, the petitioner generally must exhaust available state remedies. Exhaustion requires giving the state courts the first opportunity to address the claimed errors. For McDaniel’s claims, the opinion explains that this generally required an appeal to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and, if necessary, a request for permission to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals. Claims raised through certain collateral motions also had to be pursued through the available state appellate process.
Ruling
The court concluded from the petition and New York court records that McDaniel had not fully exhausted his state remedies. It therefore denied the § 2254 petition as prematurely filed and stated that McDaniel could file a new habeas petition in federal court after exhausting his claims through the New York Court of Appeals.
The court directed the Clerk of Court to mail McDaniel a copy of the order and record service on the docket. It denied the habeas application without prejudice. Because the petition did not make a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, the court ruled that no certificate of appealability would issue. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
Disposition
The § 2254 petition was denied without prejudice for failure to exhaust state remedies.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.