Hicks v. United States
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-06848
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Hicks v. United States, Judge Swain transferred Hicks’s unclear challenge to Maryland, where his criminal proceedings were pending.
Willie Lamont Hicks’s federal post-conviction action was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the District of Maryland; the Maryland court was left to decide whether he could proceed without paying fees.
What happened
In Hicks v. United States, Willie Lamont Hicks was facing felony charges for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in Maryland. He filed a motion challenging his criminal proceedings and pending charges in the Southern District of New York.
Hicks filed the motion under a federal law that allows certain challenges to federal convictions or sentences, but he did not clearly state the claims he meant to bring. The New York court understood him to be challenging the validity of his criminal proceedings and pending charges.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the case transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where those proceedings were pending. The New York court closed the case, left the fee decision to the Maryland court, declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal, and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Hicks v. United States · No. 1:23-cv-06848
- Laura Swain
- Aug. 4, 2023
Background
Willie Lamont Hicks was proceeding without a lawyer and was facing felony charges for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a statute that permits certain challenges to federal criminal proceedings, convictions, or sentences. The opinion states that Hicks did not clearly explain the claims he intended to assert.
The Southern District of New York understood the motion to challenge the validity of Hicks’s criminal proceedings and pending charges. Those proceedings were in the District of Maryland.
Ruling
Under Local Civil Rule 83.1 and 28 U.S.C. § 1631, the court directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in the interest of justice. The order closed the case in the Southern District of New York.
The court stated that the transferee court would decide whether Hicks could proceed without paying filing fees. The court also determined that Hicks had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability. It further certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-free status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.