Williams v. Montagari
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-08029
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Williams v. Montagari, Judge Swain transferred the petition challenging Williams’s conviction to the Eastern District of New York without deciding its merits.
Herman Williams’s federal challenge to his 2021 state conviction; the case was sent from the Southern District of New York to the Eastern District of New York.
What happened
In Williams v. Montagari, Herman Williams, who was incarcerated and representing himself, challenged his 2021 New York conviction in Queens County through a federal petition.
Because the conviction and sentence occurred in Queens County, the court transferred the case to the Eastern District of New York under its local rule. The court left the question of whether Williams could proceed without paying fees to the receiving court and closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain also declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal and denied Williams permission to appeal without paying fees, stating that he had not made the required showing of a constitutional violation and that an appeal would not be taken in good faith.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Montagari · No. 1:22-cv-08029
- Laura Swain
- Sept. 23, 2022
Background
Herman Williams, who was incarcerated at Mohawk Correctional Facility and proceeded without a lawyer, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. A petition under that statute asks a federal court to review the constitutionality of a state-court conviction. Williams challenged his 2021 conviction in the New York Supreme Court, Queens County. The respondent was A. Montagari, identified as superintendent.
Transfer
The court determined that Queens County is located in the Eastern District of New York. Under Southern District of New York Local Rule 83.3, it directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The court stated that the transferee court would decide whether Williams could proceed without paying fees. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
Ruling and appeal-related determinations
The court did not decide whether Williams’s conviction was constitutional or otherwise reach the petition’s merits. Judge Laura Taylor Swain stated that Williams had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so a certificate of appealability would not issue under 28 U.S.C. § 2253. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying fees under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3).
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.