Inesti v. People of the State of NY
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-03988
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Inesti v. People: Judge McMahon transferred Inesti’s state-conviction challenge to the Eastern District of New York without deciding its merits.
Mark Inesti’s federal challenge to his state conviction was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York; the merits remain undecided in this order.
What happened
In Inesti v. People of the State of NY, Mark Inesti, who was representing himself, asked a federal court to review the constitutionality of a 1996 state conviction from Kings County, New York. The opinion states that he was incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility.
Because Kings County is in the Eastern District of New York, the court transferred the case there under its local rule. The Southern District of New York did not decide whether Inesti’s challenge was valid, and it left any decision about whether he could proceed without paying fees to the receiving court.
Chief Judge Colleen McMahon closed the case in the Southern District of New York, declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal, and denied fee-free status for any appeal because the court found that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Inesti v. People of the State of NY · No. 1:20-cv-03988
- Colleen McMahon
- May 27, 2020
Background
Mark Inesti filed a self-represented petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, a procedure for asking a federal court to review a state-court conviction. He challenged the constitutionality of what the petition identified as his 1996 conviction in New York Supreme Court, Kings County. The opinion states that he was incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility.
A footnote says it appeared that Inesti was currently incarcerated under a February 25, 2010 New York County conviction and that he had previously filed a federal petition challenging that conviction. The court did not resolve the apparent difference between the conviction identified in the petition and the conviction described in the footnote.
Transfer and Other Rulings
The court transferred the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York under Local Rule 83.3 because Kings County is located there. The court directed the Clerk to mail the order to Inesti, record service on the docket, and transfer the action. The court stated that the receiving court would decide whether Inesti could proceed without paying fees. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
The court also stated that Inesti had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability, which is required for an appeal in this type of case. It certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal.
Classification and Effect
This is a procedural order because the court transferred the case based on the proper federal district and did not decide the merits of Inesti’s constitutional challenge. The transfer leaves the action for consideration by the Eastern District of New York.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.