Antone Presley v. R.C. Johnson

CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedApril 2, 2020
Docket2:20-cv-01917
StatusUnknown

This text of Antone Presley v. R.C. Johnson (Antone Presley v. R.C. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Antone Presley v. R.C. Johnson, (C.D. Cal. 2020).

Opinion

1 2

8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10

11 ANTONE PRESLEY, Case No. 2:20-cv-01917-PA (GJS) 12 Petitioner

13 v. ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE RE POSSIBLE DISMISSAL FOR: 14 WARDEN R.C. JOHNSON, UNTIMELINESS; LACK OF EXHAUSTION; AND 15 Respondent. NONCOGNIZABILITY 16 17 On February 27, 2020, Petitioner fil ed a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition in 18 this District [Dkt. 1, “Petition”]. The Petition does not comply with Rule 2 of the 19 Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts: it is not on 20 the standard form required to be used in this District; and, instead, is on a State of 21 California habeas form, which does not include all required information. In 22 addition, the Petition violates Rule 11(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 23 because Petitioner has not signed the pleading. 24 These defects are procedural and, thus, could be rectified with amendment. 25 However, despite the Court’s liberal construction of the Petition, it suffers from 26 three fundamental defects that do not appear to be rectifiable with amendment and 27 that appear to require its dismissal, for the following reasons.1 28 1 2 The Court has carefully reviewed the Petition and the relevant state court 3 dockets2 and, as a result, has gleaned the following relevant information. 4 This case stems from a 2017 California conviction and sentence, which in 5 turn stemmed from a nolo contendere plea by Petitioner, not a jury trial. According 6 to Petitioner, pursuant to his plea, he was convicted of attempted murder in Los 7 Angeles County Superior Court Case No. TA138346 and was sentenced to 28 years 8 in state prison on April 12, 2017 (the “State Sentence”). [Petition at 2.] Petitioner 9 did not appeal the State Sentence. Instead, on an unspecified date, he filed a habeas 10 petition in the trial court alleging that the State Sentence was unauthorized, and on 11 another unspecified date, he filed a similar habeas petition in the California Court of 12 Appeal, which was denied on February 28, 2019. [Petition at 6.] 13 The docket for Case No. TA138346 shows that Petitioner actually was 14 convicted on January 10, 2017, pursuant to a nolo contendere plea, and was 15 sentenced on March 24, 2017, as does the copy of the Abstract of Judgment 16 appended to the Petition (which itself is dated April 12, 2017). Petitioner filed a 17 habeas petition in the trial court on November 28, 2018, but the trial court docket 18 does not reveal its disposition. The dockets for the California Court of Appeal show 19 that Petitioner filed a habeas petition on February 25, 2019, in Case No. B295853. 20 That petition was denied on February 28, 2019, with an order noting that Petitioner 21 had failed to state a prima facie case for habeas relief. 22 Petitioner does not allege that he sought habeas or any other relief in the 23 California Supreme Court. The dockets for the California Supreme Court show that 24

25 appears from the petition and any attached exhibits that the petitioner is not entitled to relief in the district court.” 26 27 2 Pursuant to Rule 201 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Court has reviewed the dockets available electronically for the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the California Court of 28 Appeal, and the California Supreme Court, in addition to reviewing the documents included in the Petition. 1 2 3 PETITIONER’S CLAIM 4 Although the Petition alleges two grounds, Petitioner really raises only a 5 single challenge to the State Sentence. Petitioner alleges that he was sentenced to 6 the upper term of nine years for his attempted murder conviction, which then was 7 doubled3 and coupled with a ten-year term for the firearm enhancement to total 28 8 years. He argues that sentencing him to the upper term (and doubling it) and 9 sentencing him for the firearm enhancement was unauthorized and improper, 10 because no jury ever found true any aggravating factors or that he personally used a 11 firearm. Petitioner reasons that, therefore, under the Apprendi line of Supreme 12 Court decisions, his sentence is unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment. See 13 Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 14 (2004), and Cunningham v. California, 549 U.S. 270 (2007). 15 16 THE PETITION IS UNTIMELY ON ITS FACE 17 The one-year limitations period that governs the Petition is set forth in 28 U.S.C. 18 § 2244(d)(1)(A)-(D).4 Given the nature of the claim alleged by Petitioner, which is 19

20 3 Based on the copy of the Abstract of Judgment attached to the Petition, it appears that Petitioner’s nine-year term was doubled because Petitioner had a prior “strike” conviction. 21 22 4 Through its subparts (A) through (D), Section 2244(d)(1) contemplates four possible triggering dates for the commencement of a state prisoner’s one-year limitations period. In Pace 23 v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408, 416 n.6 (2005), the Supreme Court described these as follows: 24 § 2244(d)(1) provides that a “1-year period of limitation shall apply to an application for a writ of habeas corpus.” (Emphasis 25 added.) The subsection then provides one means of calculating the 26 limitation with regard to the “application” as a whole, § 2244(d)(1)(A) (date of final judgment), but three others that 27 require claim-by-claim consideration, § 2244(d)(1)(B) 28 (governmental interference); § 2244(d)(1)(C) (new right made retroactive); § 2244(d)(1)(D) (new factual predicate). 1 2 Sentence, subpart (d)(1)(A) governs the Petition.5 Because Petitioner did not 3 appeal following his sentencing, his criminal judgment was final on the date his time 4 for seeking review of his conviction expired, which was 60 days later, i.e., on May 5 23, 2017. See Roberts v. Marshall, 627 F.3d 768, 771 (9th Cir. 2010); Rule 8.308(a) 6 of the California Rules of Court. Thus, Petitioner’s limitations period commenced 7 running on May 24, 2017, and expired on May 23, 2018, absent tolling. 8 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2) suspends the limitations period for the time during 9 which a “properly-filed” application for post-conviction relief is “pending” in state 10 court. While, as recounted above, Petitioner filed two state court habeas petitions, 11 he did not file his first (trial court) habeas petition until November 28, 2018, which 12 was over six months after his limitations period already had expired. As a result, 13 neither that trial court habeas petition nor the subsequent February 2019 California 14 Court of Appeal petition can serve as a basis for statutory tolling, because they both 15 were filed too late. See, e.g., Laws v. Lamarque, 351 F.3d 919, 922 (9th Cir. 2003) 16 (“because [petitioner] did not file his first state petition until after his eligibility for 17 federal habeas had already elapsed, statutory tolling cannot save his claim in the first 18 instance”); Ferguson v. Palmateer, 321 F.3d 820, 823 (9th Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
Antone Presley v. R.C. Johnson, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/antone-presley-v-rc-johnson-cacd-2020.