Opinion
No. CIV S-07-1385 MCE GGH P.
August 3, 2007
ORDER
Petitioner, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, together with an application to proceed in forma pauperis.
Examination of the in forma pauperis application reveals that petitioner is unable to afford the costs of suit. Accordingly, the application to proceed in forma pauperis will be granted. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a).
While the petition is captioned as a habeas corpus petition, it also contains language suggesting that petitioner intended to file a civil rights action.
The purpose of a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 is to challenge the validity of a criminal conviction or sentence. The purpose of a civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is to challenge conditions of confinement. Because petitioner appears to challenge the legality of his criminal conviction, the court construes this action as a petition for writ of habeas corpus. If petitioner intends to challenge conditions of confinement, he must file a separate action.
After reviewing the petition, it is unclear to the court the grounds on which petitioner is challenging the legality of his conviction. For this reason, the petition is dismissed with leave to amend. Rule 4, Federal Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases. Petitioner should file his amended petition on the form provided by the court.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
1. Petitioner's application to proceed in forma pauperis is granted;
2. The petition is dismissed with thirty days to file an amended petition; failure to file an amended petition within that time will result in the recommendation of dismissal of this action;
3. The Clerk of the Court is directed to send petitioner the form for a habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
MOTION UNDER 28 USC § 2255 TO VACATE, SET ASIDE, OR CORRECT SENTENCE BY A PERSON IN FEDERAL CUSTODY (If movant has a sentence to be served in the future under a federal judgment which he or she wishes to attack, the movant should file a motion in the federal court which entered the judgment.) MOTION TO VACATE, SET ASIDE, OR CORRECT SENTENCE BY A PERSON IN FEDERAL CUSTODY Explanation and Instructions — Read Carefullyin forma pauperis, in form a pauperis 28 USC § 2255 United States District Court MOTION concisely CAUTION: If you fail to set forth all grounds in this motion, you may be barred from presenting additional grounds at a later date. briefly briefly briefly briefly
(1) This motion must be legibly handwritten or typewritten, and signed by the movant under penalty of perjury. Any false statement of a material fact may serve as the basis for prosecution and conviction for perjury. All questions must be answered concisely in the proper space on the form. (2) Additional pages are not permitted except with respect to the facts which you rely upon to support your grounds for relief. No citation of authorities need be furnished. If briefs or arguments are submitted, they should be submitted in the form of a separate memorandum. (3) Upon receipt, your motion will be filed if it is in proper order. No fee is required with this motion. (4) If you do not have the necessary funds for transcripts, counsel, appeal, and other costs connected with a motion of this type, you may request permission to proceed in which event you must execute form AO 240 or any other form required by the court, setting forth information establishing your inability to pay the costs. If you wish to proceed , you must have an authorized officer at the penal institution complete the certificate as to the amount of money and securities on deposit to your credit in any account in the institution. (5) Only judgments entered by one court may be challenged in a single motion. If you seek to challenge judgments entered by different judges or divisions either in the same district or in different districts, you must file separate motions as to each such judgment. (6) Your attention is directed to the fact that you must include all grounds for relief and all facts supporting such grounds for relief in the motion you file seeking relief from any judgment of conviction. (7) When the motion is fully completed, the original and at least two copies must be mailed to the Clerk of the United States District Court whose address is (8) Motions which do not conform to these instructions will be returned with a notation as to the deficiency. MOTION UNDER TO VACATE, SET ASIDE, OR CORRECT SENTENCE BY A PERSON IN FEDERAL CUSTODY District Name of Movant Prisoner No. Case No. Place of Confinement UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. (name under which convicted) 1. Name and location of court which entered the judgment of conviction under attack ________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Date of judgment of conviction __________________________________________________________________________ 3. Length of sentence ______________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Nature of offense involved (all counts) _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What was your plea? (Check one) (a) Not guilty (b) Guilty (c) Nolo contendere If you entered a guilty plea to one count or indictment, and a not guilty plea to another count or indictment, give details: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. If you pleaded not guilty, what kind of trial did you have? (Check one) (a) Jury (b) Judge only 7. Did you testify at the trial? Yes No 8. Did you appeal from the judgment of conviction? Yes No 9. If you did appeal, answer the following: (a) Name of court _______________________________________________________________________________________ (b) Result ______________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) Date of result ______________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Other than a direct appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence, have you previously filed any petitions, applications, or motions with respect to this judgment in any federal court? Yes No 11. If your answer to 10 was "yes," give the following information: (a) (1) Name of court ___________________________________________________________________________________ (2) Nature of proceeding ___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ (3) Grounds raised _________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ (4) Did you receive an evidentiary hearing on your petition, application or motion? Yes No (5) Result _________________________________________________________________________________________ (6) Date of result _________________________________________________________________________________ (b) As to any second petition, application or motion give the same information: (1) Name of court __________________________________________________________________________________ (2) Name of proceeding _____________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ (3) Grounds raised _________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ (4) Did you receive an evidentiary hearing on your petition, application or motion? Yes No (5) Result _________________________________________________________________________________________ (6) Date of result _________________________________________________________________________________ (c) Did you appeal, to an appellate federal court having jurisdiction, the result of action taken on any petition, application or motion? (1) First petition, etc. Yes No (2) Second petition, etc. Yes No (d) If you did not appeal from the adverse action on any petition, application or motion, explain briefly why you did not: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 12. State every ground on which you claim that you are being held in violation of the constitution, laws or treaties of the United States. Summarize briefly the facts supporting each ground. If necessary, you may attach pages stating additional grounds and facts supporting same. For your information, the following is a list of the most frequently raised grounds for relief in these proceedings. Each statement preceded by a letter constitutes a separate ground for possible relief. You may raise any grounds which you have other than those listed. However, you should raise in this motion all available grounds (relating to this conviction) on which you based your allegations that you are being held in custody unlawfully. Do not check any of these listed grounds. If you select one or more of these grounds for relief, you must allege facts. The motion will be returned to you if you merely check (a) through (j) or any one of these grounds. (a) Conviction obtained by plea of guilty which was unlawfully induced or not made voluntarily or with understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea. (b) Conviction obtained by use of coerced confession. (c) Conviction obtained by use of evidence gained pursuant to an unconstitutional search and seizure. (d) Conviction obtained by use of evidence obtained pursuant to an unlawful arrest. (e) Conviction obtained by a violation of the privilege against self-incrimination. (f) Conviction obtained by the unconstitutional failure of the prosecution to disclose to the defendant evidence favorable to the defendant. (g) Conviction obtained by a violation of the protection against double jeopardy. (h) Conviction obtained by action of a grand or petit jury which was unconstitutionally selected and impaneled. (i) Denial of effective assistance of counsel. (j) Denial of right of appeal. A. Ground one: ___________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Supporting FACTS (state without citing cases or law): __________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ B. Ground two: ___________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Supporting FACTS (state without citing cases or law): __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ C. Ground three: _________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Supporting FACTS (state without citing cases or law): __________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ D. Ground four: __________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Supporting FACTS (state without citing cases or law): __________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 13. If any of the grounds listed in 12A, B, C, and D were not previously presented, state briefly what grounds were not so presented, and give your reasons for not presenting them: ______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 14. Do you have any petition or appeal now pending in any court as to the judgment under attack? Yes No 15. Give the name and address, if known, of each attorney who represented you in the following stages of the judgment attacked herein: (a) At preliminary hearing _____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (b) At arraignment and plea ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) At trial ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (d) At sentencing ______________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (e) On appeal __________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (f) In any post-conviction proceeding __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (g) On appeal from any adverse ruling in a post-conviction proceeding __________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 16. Were you sentenced on more than one count of an indictment, or on more than one indictment, in the same court and at approximately the same time? Yes No 17. Do you have any future sentence to serve after you complete the sentence imposed by the judgment under attack? Yes No (a) If so, give name and location of court which imposed sentence to be served in the future: __________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (b) Give date and length of the above sentence: ________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) Have you filed, or do you contemplate filing, any petition attacking the judgment which imposed the sentence to be served in the future? Yes No Wherefore, movant prays that the Court grant him all relief to which he may be entitled in this proceeding. __________________________________ Signature of Attorney (if any) I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on ____________________ Date _________________________________ Signature of Movant