Harris v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:23-cv-10901
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Harris v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Judge Caproni transferred Harris’s habeas petition to Pennsylvania’s Middle District and closed the case.
Keeba Harris’s federal challenge to her 2023 Pennsylvania conviction was transferred from the Southern District of New York to the Middle District of Pennsylvania; the opinion does not decide the challenge’s merits.
What happened
In Harris v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Keeba Harris, who was incarcerated and representing herself, filed a petition challenging the constitutionality of her 2023 Pennsylvania conviction. She paid the required $5 fee.
The Southern District of New York determined that Pike County, where Harris was convicted and sentenced, is in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The court therefore transferred the petition to that district under federal law and a local rule.
Judge Valerie Caproni directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the case and stated that the order closed the case. The court also said that no certificate allowing an appeal would issue and denied fee-free status for any appeal.
The detailed version
- Harris v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · No. 1:23-cv-10901
- Valerie Caproni
- Dec. 21, 2023
Background
Keeba Harris filed a pro se petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, a federal procedure for challenging a state-court conviction. She challenged the constitutionality of her 2023 conviction in the Court of Common Pleas of Pike County, Pennsylvania. The opinion states that she was incarcerated at S.C.I. Cambridge in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, and that she paid the $5 filing fee.
Transfer
The Southern District of New York held that the case belonged in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania because Pike County, where Harris was convicted and sentenced, is located in that federal district. The court transferred the action under 28 U.S.C. § 2241(d) and Local Rule 83.3. The court did not decide the constitutionality of Harris’s conviction.
Ruling and Appeal
Judge Valerie E. Caproni directed the Clerk of Court to transfer the action to the Middle District of Pennsylvania and stated that the order closed the case. The court further determined that Harris had not made the required substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied, so it would not issue a certificate of appealability. It also certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied Harris permission to proceed without paying appeal fees.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.