Haywood v. Griffin

Background

Tyrone Haywood filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his October 20, 2008 convictions after a jury trial in Westchester County. The convictions included two counts of first-degree rape; first-degree criminal sexual act; attempted first-degree criminal sexual act; second- and third-degree assault; and second-degree unlawful imprisonment.

The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment of conviction but sent the matter back for resentencing on several counts because of discrepancies in the sentencing minutes concerning which sentences were to run concurrently. Haywood was resentenced on April 29, 2015. The Appellate Division affirmed the resentencing, and the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal.

Haywood later filed five motions under New York Criminal Procedure Law § 440.10 seeking to set aside his conviction. The opinion states that the first four were denied and the fifth remained pending. A magistrate judge denied Haywood’s request to stay the federal proceeding while the fifth motion was pending.

Report and Recommendation

Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy issued a Report and Recommendation on December 27, 2019, recommending that the court deny the petition in its entirety. The court had notified Haywood that objections were due within the applicable period and that failing to object could waive appellate rights.

Haywood submitted a letter attaching an indictment involving Martin Bailey. The court found that the letter did not present arguments responding to the Report and Recommendation and did not explain why Bailey’s indictment was relevant to Haywood’s case. The court concluded that Haywood had not filed objections.

Court’s Review and Ruling

Because no objections were filed, Judge Kenneth M. Karas reviewed the Report and Recommendation for clear error. The court stated that it reviewed the petition and the recommendation and found no substantive error, clear or otherwise. The opinion does not independently analyze the underlying habeas claims; it adopts the magistrate judge’s recommendation under the clear-error standard.

The court ordered that the Report and Recommendation be adopted in its entirety and that the petition be dismissed. It also ordered that no certificate of appealability issue because Haywood had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied. The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and directed the Clerk to mail the order to Haywood and close the case.