Bates v. New York Parole
- Colleen McMahon
- 1:20-cv-03986
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Bates v. New York Parole, Judge McMahon dismissed Richard Lee Bates Jr.’s habeas petition without prejudice because he neither paid the fee nor filed an IFP application.
Richard Lee Bates Jr.; his habeas petition was dismissed without prejudice, and the court denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal.
What happened
In Bates v. New York Parole, Richard Lee Bates Jr. filed a petition asking the federal court to review his detention through a habeas case.
The court had ordered Bates to either pay the required $5 filing fee or submit a request to proceed without paying it. Bates did neither, although the court received two letters from him about the petition’s merits.
Judge McMahon dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning the dismissal did not bar refiling. The court also said no certificate allowing an appeal would issue and denied fee-waiver status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Bates v. New York Parole · No. 1:20-cv-03986
- Colleen McMahon
- July 27, 2020
Background
Richard Lee Bates Jr. filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, a court action seeking review of allegedly unlawful custody or detention. On May 27, 2020, the court ordered Bates to submit a completed application to proceed without paying the filing fee or to pay the $5 filing fee. The order warned that failing to do so would result in dismissal.
The opinion states that Bates did not submit the application or pay the fee. It also states that the court received two letters from him concerning the merits of his petition and that the letters’ return addresses indicated he remained incarcerated in the same facility.
Ruling
The court dismissed the petition without prejudice under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1914 and 1915. The opinion does not decide the merits of Bates’s habeas claims.
The court further stated that no certificate of appealability—a document required for an appeal in this type of case—would issue because the petition made no substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Bates permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal. Judge Colleen McMahon directed the Clerk of Court to mail the order to Bates and record service on the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.