Brown v. The State of Nevada

• Court: District Court, D. Nevada
• Decided: January 14, 2020
• Docket: 2:19-cv-02000
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 TRACEY L. BROWN, Case No.: 2:19-cv-02000-JAD-DJA

4 Petitioner Order Granting IFP Status and 5 v. Appointing Counsel

6 THE STATE OF NEVADA, et al., [ECF Nos. 3, 8, 9]

7 Respondents

8 9 Petitioner Tracey L. Brown brings this pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 10 U.S.C. § 2254 to challenge his 2018 Nevada state court convictions for robbery and related 11 offenses.1 He applies to proceed in forma pauperis2 and asks for court-appointed counsel.3 12 Having reviewed the petition under Habeas Rule 4, I direct the Clerk of Court to docket it4 and 13 serve it on respondents. I also grant the motions for in forma pauperis status and to appoint 14 counsel. 15 I. Application to proceed in forma pauperis [ECF No. 8] 16 I find that Brown cannot pay the filing fee, so I grant his application for leave to proceed 17 in forma pauperis. 18 19 1 ECF No. 1-1. 20 2 ECF No. 8. 21 3 ECF Nos. 3, 9. 4 Because a petition for federal habeas corpus should include all claims for relief of which 22 petitioner is aware, failure to include such a claim in a petition may result in it being forever barred. See 28 U.S.C. §2254(b) (successive petitions). If petitioner is aware of any claim not 23 included in his petition, he should notify the court of that as soon as possible, preferably in a motion to amend his petition to add the claim. 1 II. Motion to appoint counsel [ECF Nos. 3, 9] 2 Brown has also filed two motions for appointment of counsel. The decision to appoint 3 counsel is generally discretionary,5 but counsel must be appointed if the case is so complex that 4 denial of counsel would amount to a denial of due process, and when the petitioner has such 5 limited education that he is incapable of fairly presenting his claims.6 Brown is serving a

6 lengthy sentence and, while not entirely clear, it appears that some of the legal issues he wishes 7 to raise may be complex. Therefore, to ensure due process, I grant Brown’s request to appoint 8 counsel. 9 Conclusion 10 IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that petitioner’s application for leave to proceed in 11 forma pauperis [ECF No. 8] is GRANTED; petitioner will not be required to pay the filing fee. 12 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that petitioner’s first motion for appointment of counsel 13 [ECF No. 3] is GRANTED and his second motion for appointment of counsel [ECF No. 9] is 14 DENIED as moot. The Federal Public Defender for the District of Nevada (FPD) is appointed

15 to represent petitioner. 16 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk is directed to: 17 • FILE and ELECTRONICALLY SERVE the petition (ECF No. 1-1) on the 18 respondents; 19 • ADD Aaron D. Ford, Nevada Attorney General, as counsel for respondents; and 20 21

22 5 Chaney v. Lewis, 801 F.2d 1191, 1196 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1023 (1987); Bashor v. Risley, 730 F.2d 1228, 1234 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 838 (1984). 23 6 See Chaney, 801 F.2d at 1196; see also Hawkins v. Bennett, 423 F.2d 948 (8th Cir. 1970). 1 e ELECTRONICALLY SERVE the FPD with a copy of this order, together with 2 a copy of the petition for writ of habeas corpus (ECF No. 1-1). The FPD must file 3 a notice of appearance or indicate to the court its inability to represent petitioner 4 in these proceedings by February 13, 2020. Once counsel has appeared for 5 petitioner in this case, the court will issue a scheduling order that will, among 6 other things, set a deadline for the filing of a counseled amended petition. 7 Dated: January 14, 2020 LITO’, U.S. District Ju (ool otal fer JA. Dorsey

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