Kane-Lee v. Warden of Rikers Island
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-01256
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Kane-Lee v. Warden, Judge McMahon transferred Kane-Lee’s conviction challenge to the District of Vermont.
Patricia Kane-Lee’s federal challenge to her Vermont conviction was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the District of Vermont; the Vermont court would decide whether she could proceed without paying fees.
What happened
In Kane-Lee v. Warden of Rikers Island, Patricia Kane-Lee, representing herself, challenged the constitutionality of her 2014 Vermont conviction while detained on a Vermont probation-violation warrant.
The Southern District of New York transferred the case to the District of Vermont because Kane-Lee was convicted and sentenced in Bennington, Vermont. The order closed the New York case and left any decision about proceeding without paying fees to the Vermont court.
Judge Colleen McMahon also declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal and denied fee-free status for any appeal, stating that Kane-Lee had not made the required showing of a constitutional-right violation.
The detailed version
- Kane-Lee v. Warden of Rikers Island · No. 1:20-cv-01256
- Colleen McMahon
- Mar. 5, 2020
Background
Patricia Kane-Lee was detained at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island based on a Vermont warrant alleging a probation violation. She filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, a procedure for challenging a state-court conviction in federal court. She challenged the constitutionality of her 2014 conviction in the Vermont Superior Court’s Bennington Criminal Division. The opinion states that she proceeded without a lawyer.
Transfer
The Southern District of New York applied 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), which allows a federal court to transfer a civil action to another federal district where it could have been brought when convenience and the interests of justice support transfer. Because Kane-Lee was convicted and sentenced in Bennington, Vermont, the court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the District of Vermont.
Ruling and appeal-related orders
The court directed the Clerk to transfer the action and mail Kane-Lee a copy of the order. It stated that the District of Vermont would decide whether Kane-Lee could continue without paying fees. The order closed the Southern District of New York case. The court also stated that Kane-Lee had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability, which is permission required for certain federal habeas appeals. The court further denied fee-free status for an appeal because it certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith. Judge Colleen McMahon signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.