McClennon v. Superintendent
- Vincent Briccetti
- 7:22-cv-04302
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In McClennon v. Superintendent, Judge Briccetti denied McClennon’s habeas petition after adopting a magistrate judge’s unchallenged recommendation.
Akbar McClennon’s federal habeas petition was denied, and the case was closed. The court also declined to issue a certificate of appealability and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
What happened
In McClennon v. Superintendent, Akbar McClennon filed a petition asking the federal court to review his state-court custody through a federal habeas petition. The court considered Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy’s recommendation that the petition be denied.
McClennon did not object to the recommendation, even after the court extended his deadline. The court therefore reviewed the recommendation for clear error and found none.
Judge Briccetti adopted the recommendation in full and denied the petition. The court directed the Clerk to enter judgment and close the case, declined to issue a certificate allowing an appeal, and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
The detailed version
- McClennon v. Superintendent · No. 7:22-cv-04302
- Vincent Briccetti
- May 3, 2024
Background
Akbar McClennon, proceeding without a lawyer, filed a petition for federal habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The respondent was identified as the Superintendent of Green Haven Correctional Facility. The opinion states that the factual and procedural background was discussed in the parties’ earlier filings and does not repeat it.
Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy issued a Report and Recommendation on February 14, 2024, recommending that the petition be denied in its entirety. A copy was mailed to McClennon on February 15, 2024. After receiving no objections, the district court extended the deadline for objections to April 26, 2024, but McClennon still did not object.
Court’s analysis
Under the federal rules governing magistrate judges’ recommendations, a district court may accept, reject, or modify a recommendation. When a party does not make a timely objection, the district court may adopt the recommendation if no clear error appears in the record. “Clear error” means an obvious mistake apparent from the record.
Because McClennon filed no objections, the court reviewed Judge McCarthy’s recommendation for clear error. The court found no error and adopted the Report and Recommendation. The opinion does not independently analyze the underlying habeas claims; it resolves the petition by adopting the unchallenged recommendation after clear-error review.
Disposition
The court adopted the Report and Recommendation in its entirety as the opinion of the court and denied the petition. It directed the Clerk to enter judgment and close the case. Judge Vincent L. Briccetti also ruled that no certificate of appealability would issue because McClennon had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right was denied. The court further certified that an appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to appeal without paying court fees.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.