Opinion
23-3116-JWL
06-02-2024
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
JOHN W. LUNGSTRUM UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This matter is a petition for writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 by state prisoner and Petitioner Cletis R. O'Quinn. (Doc. 5.) It is stayed pending completion of statecourt proceeding, case number 2022-CV-000073, in which Petitioner is exhausting the sole issue presented in his federal habeas petition. The state district court entered a final order in that matter in January 2024 and appointed counsel, Shannon Crane, to represent Petitioner on appeal, but Ms. Crane may not have been notified of the appointment. Thus, in May 2024, this Court issued an order that stated, in part, that Petitioner might choose to make further inquiries about the appointment. (Doc. 27.) This matter comes now before the Court on Petitioner's status report filed July 1, 2024. (Doc. 28.)
Petitioner advises that on June 17, 2024, he wrote to Ms. Crane, but he has not yet received a response from her. Id. at 1. He also advises that he wrote to the state district judge assigned to his case over a month ago, but similarly has received no response. Id. Finally, Petitioner asserts that he believes he has exhausted all available state-court remedies, so he asks the Court to grant his federal habeas petition and order his immediate release from state incarceration. Id.
The Court is unpersuaded by Petitioner's assertion regarding exhaustion. Petitioner has not completed an appeal from the denial in state district court of the issue he raises in his federal habeas petition, nor does it appear that attempts to exhaust are futile. (See Doc. 15, p. 304 (setting forth exhaustion requirements); Doc. 17, p. 1 (explaining that slow pace of state-court proceedings does not render exhaustion futile in this case).)
The publicly available records of the state district court reflect that on June 14, 2024, an order was filed explicitly appointing Ms. Crane to represent Petitioner. See attached. A copy of that order was sent to Petitioner and to Ms. Crane and the state-court docket now reflects Ms. Crane as counsel of record for Petitioner. Although this Court understands Petitioner's frustration at the pace of his state-court proceedings, this Court is optimistic that the state-court proceedings will now proceed without undue delay. Accordingly, this matter will remain stayed and Petitioner will be ordered to file a status report on or before September 4, 2024, informing this Court whether he has had contact with Ms. Crane and whether an appeal has been docketed in the Kansas Court of Appeals; if it has, Petitioner is directed to provide in his status report the case number assigned to that appeal. Petitioner may also include any other relevant information regarding the progress of his appeal.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Petitioner is directed to file a status report on or before September 4, 2024 advising the Court of the information detailed herein.
IT IS SO ORDERED.