Scott v. Pike County Correctional Facility
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-03645
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Scott v. Pike County Correctional Facility, Judge McMahon transferred Scott’s federal conviction petition to Pennsylvania without deciding its merits and denied a certificate of appealability.
Tonia Scott’s federal petition was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where further decisions about the petition and fees were left to the transferee court.
What happened
Scott v. Pike County Correctional Facility concerns Tonia Scott’s petition challenging a conviction from Pike County, Pennsylvania. Scott filed the petition without a lawyer in the Southern District of New York under a federal law allowing challenges to state convictions.
The court noted that Pike County is in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, not the Southern District of New York. It therefore transferred the case to the Middle District of Pennsylvania and closed the New York case. The opinion did not decide whether Scott’s petition had merit or whether she could proceed without paying fees.
Judge Colleen McMahon also declined to issue a certificate of appealability, which is required for an appeal in this type of case, because Scott had not made the required showing of a constitutional-right violation. The court also denied fee-free status for any appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Scott v. Pike County Correctional Facility · No. 1:20-cv-03645
- Colleen McMahon
- May 13, 2020
Background
Tonia Scott filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the federal procedure for challenging a state-court conviction, against Pike County Correctional Facility and other respondents. The opinion states that Scott proceeded without a lawyer and that the petition listed a Manhattan address, while challenging a conviction from Pike County, Pennsylvania.
Transfer
The court determined that Pike County is located in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Under Local Rule 83.3 and 28 U.S.C. § 118(b), the court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The order directed the Clerk of Court to mail Scott a copy of the order, record service on the docket, and transfer the action. The court stated that the transferee court would decide whether Scott could proceed without paying fees. The opinion also states that Scott had not submitted an application to proceed without paying fees.
Disposition
The transfer order closed the case in the Southern District of New York; it did not decide the merits of Scott’s conviction challenge. The court certified that Scott had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied and therefore stated that a certificate of appealability would not issue. The court also denied fee-free status for an appeal, finding that any appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. Judge Colleen McMahon issued the order on May 13, 2020.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.