Schaefer v. Martinez
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-01712
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Schaefer v. Martinez: Judge Swain transferred Schaefer’s sentence challenge to the Eastern District of New York because he was incarcerated there.
Daniel M. Schaefer, Jr.; the case was moved from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York, where further proceedings may be considered.
What happened
In Schaefer v. Martinez, Daniel M. Schaefer, Jr., who was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, challenged how his federal sentence was carried out. He said he was disciplined for leaving a halfway house even though a car had struck him and he was in a coma when the disciplinary decision was made.
The Southern District of New York concluded that a petition challenging the execution of a federal sentence generally belongs in the district where the prisoner is confined, because that court must have authority over the person responsible for the confinement. The court therefore transferred the case to the Eastern District of New York rather than deciding Schaefer’s challenge.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the transfer and closed the case in the Southern District of New York. She left any decision about allowing Schaefer to continue without paying fees to the receiving court and denied fee-free status for an appeal, finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Schaefer v. Martinez · No. 1:22-cv-01712
- Laura Swain
- Mar. 2, 2022
Background
Daniel M. Schaefer, Jr. filed the petition without a lawyer under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, a federal law that allows a person to challenge the execution of a federal sentence. He was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, while serving a sentence arising from a conviction in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Schaefer alleged that he was disciplined for absconding from a halfway house. He contended that he had not absconded because a car struck him while he was returning to the halfway house, and he was in a coma at Lincoln Memorial Hospital in the Bronx when the disciplinary determination was made.
Transfer analysis
The court explained that a court deciding a petition under Section 2241 must have jurisdiction over the person responsible for the petitioner’s custody. A challenge to a prisoner’s current confinement generally must be filed in the district where the prisoner is incarcerated.
Schaefer was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which the court stated is in Kings County and within the Eastern District of New York. The court therefore determined that the petition belonged in that district and ordered the transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1406(a), which permits transfer in the interest of justice when a case is filed in the wrong federal district.
Disposition
The Clerk of Court was directed to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Southern District of New York did not decide whether Schaefer’s disciplinary challenge was valid. It stated that the receiving court would decide whether he could proceed without paying fees. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
The court also certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. The Clerk was directed to mail Schaefer a copy of the order and note service on the docket.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.