Sanchez v. Keyser

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ELECTRONICALLY FILED DOC#: SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DATE FILED: 4-28-20 FELIX SANCHEZ, Petitioner, 20-CV-3070 (RA) -against- ORDER KEYSER, Respondent. RONNIE ABRAMS, United States District Judge: In 1992, Petitioner Felix Sanchez was convicted in New York Supreme Court of murder, attempted murder, and gun possession, and was sentenced to an aggregate term of 50 years to life in prison. In 1995, his convictions were affirmed on appeal. See People v. Sanchez, 216 A.D.2d 207 (1st Dep’t 1995), leave denied, 87 N.Y. 2d 850 (Nov. 20, 1995). On December 3, 1998, Sanchez filed an initial petition seeking habeas corpus relief, which Judge Rakoff denied as untimely on January 12, 2000. Sanchez v. Superintendent Portuondo et al., 99-CV-01911-JSR, ECF No. 8. On January 4, 2020, Judge Rakoff denied Sanchez’s motion for relief from this habeas judgment. Id. at ECF No. 19. Sanchez filed a further habeas petition dated April 4, 2020 seeking release pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) based on the extraordinary circumstances and risk to his health posed by COVID-19. That petition was docketed in a new action before this Court on April 16, 2020, 20- CV-3070-RA, ECF No. 1, as well as in the existing action before Judge Rakoff on April 23, 2020, 99-CV-01911-JSR, ECF No. 24. This Court set a briefing schedule, ECF Nos. 3, 8, but before Respondent’s answer was due, Judge Rakoff transferred Sanchez’s petition to the Second Circuit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631 on the grounds that any second or successive habeas petition must be certified by a panel of the Second Circuit under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b)(3)(A) and 2255(h). See 99-cv-01911-JSR, ECF No. 25 (citing Torres v. Senkowski, 316 F.3d 147, 151-52 (2d Cir. 2003)). In light of the fact that Mr. Sanchez’s April 4, 2020 petition was docketed in both this action and the action before Judge Rakoff, and Judge Rakoff has already addressed the petition, this Court will not do so. Accordingly, Respondent need not file its answer to the petition, and the Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to close this action.

The Clerk of Court is directed to mail this order to Felix Sanchez.

SO ORDERED. Dated: April 28, 2020 i] , New York, New York ( ( RONNIE ABRAMS United States District Judge