Smickle v. Superintendent, Shawangunk Correctional Facility
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-01634
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Smickle v. People, Judge Swain ordered the Clerk to administratively close a duplicate case and file its petition as an amended petition in an earlier case.
Randel Smickle's duplicate federal petition and the related case under No. 23-CV-1634 (JHR); the petition will proceed in that earlier case rather than this one.
What happened
In Smickle v. The People of the State of New York, Randel Smickle filed two petitions challenging the same New York conviction. The first was filed on February 24, 2023, and remained pending in an earlier related proceeding.
Smickle filed an identical petition on March 29, 2023, opening this separate case. He also asked that the petition be held while another matter was pending. The court treated the second filing as duplicative of the first.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the Clerk to administratively close this case and file its petition as an amended petition in the earlier related proceeding, No. 23-CV-1634 (JHR). The court also denied payment-free filing status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Smickle v. Superintendent, Shawangunk Correctional Facility · No. 1:23-cv-01634
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 26, 2023
Background
On February 24, 2023, Randel Smickle filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his January 5, 2017, New York County judgment of conviction. That petition was assigned docket number 23-CV-1634 (JHR) and was pending before another judge of the court.
On March 29, 2023, Smickle filed an identical petition, along with a letter asking that the petition be held while another matter was pending. The second filing opened this action, No. 23-CV-2650 (LTS). The court's April 3 order had directed Smickle either to pay the filing fee or submit an application to proceed without paying it; he later submitted that application.
Court's Action
Because both filings challenged the same conviction, the court directed the Clerk to administratively close the action under No. 23-CV-2650 (LTS). The court also directed the Clerk to file the petition currently docketed as ECF No. 1 in that action as an amended petition in the earlier related proceeding under No. 23-CV-1634 (JHR). The claims were therefore directed to proceed under No. 23-CV-1634 (JHR), and Smickle was directed to place that docket number on future papers supporting the petition.
Appeal Filing Status
The court certified under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3) that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith. It therefore denied payment-free filing status for purposes of an appeal.
Disposition
The court administratively closed No. 23-CV-2650 (LTS) and directed that its petition be filed as an amended petition in No. 23-CV-1634 (JHR). The order did not decide the merits of Smickle's challenge to his conviction.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.