Owens v. Keyser
- John Cronan
- 1:18-cv-11638
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Owens v. Keyser, Judge Cronan denied Owens’s conviction-challenge petition as untimely and adopted Judge Lehrburger’s recommendation.
Ricky Owens’s federal challenge to his New York conviction was denied as untimely; the court also denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
What happened
Owens v. Keyser concerned Ricky Owens’s petition challenging his New York conviction for first-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Owens, representing himself, raised claims about the jury instructions, hearsay evidence, juror questioning, and his sentence.
A magistrate judge recommended denying the petition because Owens filed it more than one year after his conviction became final and did not show that the deadline should be extended for fairness reasons. Neither side objected to that recommendation.
Judge Cronan independently reviewed the recommendation, adopted it in full, and denied Owens’s petition. Judge Cronan also denied permission to appeal without paying court fees and closed the case.
The detailed version
- Owens v. Keyser · No. 1:18-cv-11638
- John Cronan
- May 13, 2021
Background
Ricky Owens, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a federal petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 seeking to challenge his New York state conviction. A petition under this statute allows a state prisoner to ask a federal court to review whether the conviction violates federal law. Owens’s conviction followed a jury trial in New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, on charges of first-degree manslaughter and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Owens raised four claims: that the trial court improperly submitted first-degree manslaughter to the jury while he was also charged with second-degree murder; that hearsay testimony violated his right to due process; that the trial court did not adequately ask whether jurors could continue serving during deliberations; and that he was improperly sentenced to seven years for the weapon-possession conviction.
Report and Recommendation
The Appellate Division for the First Department affirmed Owens’s conviction, and the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal. The conviction became final on July 4, 2016. Owens filed his federal petition on December 12, 2018, more than 29 months later.
Judge Robert W. Lehrburger recommended denying the petition because it was filed after the one-year federal deadline in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). He also concluded that Owens had not shown grounds for equitable tolling, which can extend a filing deadline in limited circumstances. Owens received an extension until November 30, 2020, to object to the recommendation, but neither party filed objections.
Ruling
Judge John P. Cronan stated that the lack of objections ordinarily would lead to review for clear error, but he conducted a de novo review anyway. He found the recommendation well reasoned and its conclusions well founded, adopted it in its entirety, and denied Owens’s petition. Because the petition was denied on the filing deadline and equitable-tolling issue, the order did not decide the underlying trial and sentencing claims.
The court certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the action and mail the order to Owens.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.