Hasanati v. State of Florida
- Laura Swain
- 1:22-cv-06129
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 19
In Hasanati v. State of Florida, Judge Swain denied Hasanati’s extension request, leaving November 7, 2022, as the deadline to amend his petition.
Jahi Amadi Hasanati was required to meet the November 7, 2022 deadline and, if he amended his petition, to address the court’s specified challenge to the execution of his sentence. The respondents were not required to answer at this stage.
What happened
In Hasanati v. State of Florida, Jahi Amadi Hasanati asked for 30 additional days to amend his petition challenging matters related to his Florida conviction and medical release.
The court had previously told Hasanati that any amended petition had to challenge the restriction on opening a checking account on a federal constitutional ground and show that he had presented that claim through one complete round of state-court review. His filing instead raised arguments about the statutes underlying his conviction.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied the request for more time. The court kept November 7, 2022, as the deadline for an amended petition challenging the execution of his sentence. The court also declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal and denied permission to proceed without paying the appeal filing fee.
The detailed version
- Hasanati v. State of Florida · No. 1:22-cv-06129
- Laura Swain
- Oct. 11, 2022
Background
Jahi Amadi Hasanati brought this action without a lawyer under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the federal law allowing a person in state custody to challenge a state conviction or sentence. In an order dated September 6, 2022, the court said that, if Hasanati wanted to proceed under that law, he had to file an amended petition showing two things: first, that he was challenging a special condition of his conditional medical release that barred him from opening a checking account on a federal constitutional ground; and second, that he had fully presented that constitutional claim through one complete round of state-court review.
The court set November 7, 2022, as the deadline for the amended petition. Hasanati then filed a declaration requesting 30 additional days. The declaration raised arguments about the validity of the statutes under which he was convicted and appeared to seek more time to challenge his 2011 Florida conviction, which the opinion says he had previously challenged in multiple federal petitions.
Court’s Ruling
The court held that Hasanati had not shown a reason to extend the filing deadline and denied his request for more time. The court stated that, if Hasanati wished to file an amended petition, it had to challenge the execution of his sentence—specifically, the special conditions imposed during his medical release to Bronx County, New York—and had to be filed by November 7, 2022.
The court directed that any amended petition be submitted to the Pro Se Intake Unit, labeled “Amended Petition,” and filed under docket number 22-CV-6129. It stated that no response from the respondents or subpoenas were required at that time. The court further warned that failure to comply, without a showing of good cause, would result in denial of the petition without prejudice.
Appeal-Related Rulings
Judge Laura Taylor Swain found that Hasanati had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so the court would not issue a certificate of appealability. The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying the filing fee for an appeal.
Read the full 19-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.