Jeffries v. Howes

Full title: WILLIE JEFFRIES, Petitioner, v. CAROL HOWES, Respondent

Court: United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Southern Division

Date published: Oct 11, 2006

Case No. 06-CV-14273 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 11, 2006)

Opinion

Case No. 06-CV-14273.

October 11, 2006

OPINION AND ORDER TRANSFERRING SUCCESSIVE PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS TO UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

PAUL BORMAN, District Judge

Petitioner Willie Jeffries is currently incarcerated at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. He has filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus. For the reasons set forth below, this Court determines that this is a successive habeas corpus petition and, therefore, orders it transferred to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631 ¹ and 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A).

1 28 U.S.C. § 1631 provides, in relevant part:

Whenever a civil action is filed in a court . . . and that court finds that there is a want of jurisdiction, the court shall, if it is in the interest of justice, transfer such action or appeal to any other such court in which the action or appeal could have been brought at the time it was filed or noticed . . .

In the pending petition, Petitioner challenges a first-degree murder conviction rendered in Genesee County Circuit Court. On January 17, 1983, Petitioner was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On October 18, 1999, Petitioner filed a habeas corpus petition in this court challenging the same conviction challenged in the pending petition. The District Court dismissed the petition with prejudice because it was not timely filed. See Jeffries v. Kapture, No. 99-cv-75060 (E.D. Mich. June 12, 2000) (Edmunds, J.). The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that when a habeas corpus petition is dismissed based on a procedural bar, such a dismissal is a dismissal "on the merits." In re Cook, 215 F. 3d 606, 607 (6th Cir. 2000). Accord Villanueva v. United States, 346 F.3d 55, 61 (2d Cir. 2003) (holding that a dismissal of a suit as untimely is a dismissal on the merits). Therefore, Petitioner's prior habeas petition, which was dismissed as untimely, was a dismissal on the merits.

Before a prisoner may file a habeas petition challenging a conviction already challenged in a prior habeas petition, the prisoner must "move in the appropriate court of appeals for an order authorizing the district court to consider the application." 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A). Petitioner has not obtained from the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit authorization to file a second or successive petition in this Court. The Sixth Circuit has held that "when a second or successive petition for habeas corpus relief or § 2255 motion is filed in the district court without § 2244(b)(3) authorization from this court, the district court shall transfer the document to this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631." In re Sims, 111 F.3d 45, 47 (6^th Cir. 1997).

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus be TRANSFERRED to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.