Lewis v. Bradley
- Gregory Woods
- 1:22-cv-07777
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Lewis v. Bradley, Judge Woods denied Lewis’s time-barred petition, declined an appeal certificate, and denied fee-free appeal status.
Kevin Lewis’s § 2255 petition was denied as time-barred; Warden Bradley received judgment as the respondent. The order also limited Lewis’s ability to appeal by withholding a certificate of appealability and denying permission to appeal without paying filing fees.
What happened
In Lewis v. Bradley, Kevin Lewis asked the court for relief under a federal law that allows prisoners to challenge certain convictions or sentences. The court had previously treated his filing as a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and told him to withdraw it or explain why it should not be denied as filed too late.
Lewis did not respond within the original 60-day period. The court then gave him another 30 days, but he still did not respond. The opinion says the court relied on the reasons explained in its earlier order.
Judge Gregory H. Woods denied the petition as time-barred. The court also ruled that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue, denied Lewis permission to appeal without paying filing fees, directed the clerk to enter judgment for Warden Bradley, and closed the case.
The detailed version
- Lewis v. Bradley · No. 1:22-cv-07777
- Gregory Woods
- Feb. 6, 2023
Background
Kevin Lewis filed a petition that the court construed as arising under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a federal procedure for challenging a federal conviction or sentence. The court’s October 27, 2022 order gave Lewis 60 days either to withdraw the petition or to show why it should not be denied as time-barred. The opinion does not repeat the earlier order’s full explanation of why the court considered the petition untimely.
Failure to Respond
Lewis did not respond within the initial 60-day period. On December 30, 2022, the court extended his response deadline by 30 days. Lewis did not respond during that additional period either.
Rulings
For the reasons stated in the October 27, 2022 order, the court denied the petition as time-barred. Because Lewis had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied, the court ruled that a certificate of appealability would not issue. A certificate of appealability is court authorization required for certain appeals from a habeas decision.
The court also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Lewis permission to appeal without paying the filing fee. The clerk was directed to terminate all pending motions, enter judgment for Respondent Warden Bradley, and close case number 1:22-cv-7777. The opinion does not describe the underlying § 2255 claims because it relies on the reasoning in the earlier order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.