Hicks v. The People of The State of New York
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-01486
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hicks v. People, Chief Judge McMahon ordered Hicks to pay $5 or file an application to proceed without prepaying fees within 30 days.
Jamal Hicks must, within 30 days of February 24, 2020, either pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application to proceed without prepaying fees. If he does not comply, the petition will be denied. The order also denies permission to proceed without prepaying fees for an appeal from this order.
What happened
In Hicks v. The People of The State of New York, Jamal Hicks, representing himself, submitted what appeared to be a petition for a writ of habeas corpus without paying the filing fee or submitting an application to proceed without prepaying fees.
The court ordered Hicks, within 30 days, either to pay the $5 filing fee or submit a signed application asking to proceed without prepaying fees. The court said no response from the State was required at that time and directed the clerk to mail Hicks a copy of the order.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon ordered that the case proceed under the clerk’s procedures if Hicks complied; if he did not comply within the deadline, the petition would be denied. The court also denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for any appeal from this order, stating that such an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Hicks v. The People of The State of New York · No. 1:20-cv-01486
- Colleen McMahon
- Feb. 24, 2020
Background
Jamal Hicks, proceeding without a lawyer, filed what the court described as an apparent petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The filing did not include the $5 filing fee or a signed application to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without prepaying court fees.
Order
The court directed Hicks to take one of two actions within 30 days of the order’s date:
1. Pay the $5 filing fee; or 2. Complete and submit the attached application to proceed without prepaying fees, labeled with docket number 1:20-CV-1486 (CM).
The court explained that, if it granted the application, Hicks could proceed without prepaying the fee. The clerk was directed to mail Hicks a copy of the order and record service on the docket. The court stated that the respondent was not required to answer at that time.
Disposition and Effect
The court ordered that the case be processed under the clerk’s procedures if Hicks complied with the payment-or-application requirement. If he failed to comply within the allowed time, the petition would be denied. The order did not decide the substance of Hicks’s apparent habeas petition.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without prepaying fees for purposes of an appeal.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.