Hopkins v. United States
- Lewis Kaplan
- 1:23-cv-10667
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 1
In Hopkins v. United States, Judge Kaplan denied Arius Hopkins’s unsigned Section 2255 motion, denied appeal fee-waiver status, and ordered the case closed.
Arius Hopkins, whose unsigned Section 2255 motion was denied and whose request to proceed without paying appeal fees was also denied.
What happened
Arius Hopkins asked the Southern District of New York to cancel his sentence or hold a hearing on his claims and to appoint a new attorney. The court had ordered him to submit the motion and memorandum he said he had previously signed and mailed, but he did not do so.
The court denied Hopkins’s motion because it lacked his signature, violating the applicable federal and local rules. It also denied his request to proceed without paying fees on appeal after finding that an appeal would not be taken in good faith, and directed the Clerk to close the case.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued the order on March 4, 2024.
The detailed version
- Hopkins v. United States · No. 1:23-cv-10667
- Lewis Kaplan
- Mar. 4, 2024
Background
Arius Hopkins filed a motion under Section 2255, a federal procedure for asking the sentencing court to vacate a federal sentence or provide other relief. His motion sought either vacatur of his sentence or a hearing on his claims, as well as appointment of a new attorney.
On February 7, 2024, the court ordered Hopkins to submit the Section 2255 motion and memorandum that he said he had previously signed and mailed. The order gave him fourteen days to do so. The opinion states that he did not submit those documents.
Ruling
The court denied Hopkins’s motion because it was submitted without a signature. The court said that this violated Rule 11(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Local Civil Rule 11.1(a).
The court also 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 Hopkins permission to proceed without paying the appeal filing fees. The Clerk was directed to close the case.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.