Aponte v. Harper
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-03402
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Aponte v. Harper, Judge McMahon transferred John Aponte’s habeas petition to the Second Circuit because it was a second petition requiring authorization.
John Aponte’s federal challenge to his 2000 state-court conviction was transferred to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit because the district court treated it as a second or successive petition requiring appellate authorization.
What happened
In Aponte v. Harper, John Aponte, who was incarcerated, filed a self-represented petition challenging his 2000 state-court conviction. He sought relief under a federal law that allows challenges to state convictions.
The court’s records showed that Aponte had previously filed a petition challenging the same conviction and that the earlier petition had been decided on its merits. The court therefore treated the new petition as a second petition, which requires permission from the federal appeals court before it can proceed in the district court.
Judge Colleen McMahon transferred the petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and closed the district-court case. She also declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
The detailed version
- Aponte v. Harper · No. 1:20-cv-03402
- Colleen McMahon
- May 5, 2020
Background
John Aponte filed a self-represented petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his 2000 conviction in New York Supreme Court, Bronx County. The opinion states that he was incarcerated at Mohawk Correctional Facility when he filed the petition.
Reason for the Transfer
The district court’s records showed that Aponte had filed an earlier petition under § 2254 challenging the same conviction. Because that earlier petition had been decided on the merits, the court classified the new filing as a “second or successive” petition.
Federal law requires a person to obtain authorization from the appropriate federal appeals court before filing a second or successive § 2254 petition in a district court. The court explained that Aponte therefore had to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for permission to pursue the petition. The opinion also identified the two statutory grounds that such a request must address: a previously unavailable constitutional rule made retroactive by the Supreme Court, or newly undiscoverable facts that, if proven, would show by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the applicant guilty without the constitutional error.
Disposition
The court transferred the petition to the Second Circuit in the interest of justice under 28 U.S.C. § 1631 and closed the district-court case. The order stated that, if the Second Circuit authorized Aponte to proceed, he could ask to reopen the case under the same civil docket number.
Judge Colleen McMahon also ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue because Aponte had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied. The court certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying filing fees. The order transferred the matter and did not decide the underlying challenge to Aponte’s conviction.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.