Frazier v. Acevedo et al

Filing 7

WRITTEN Opinion entered by the Honorable Sharon Johnson Coleman on 1/4/2012: The court construes the petitioner's trust account statement [# 3 ] as a motion to proceed in forma pauperis and grants the motion. The respondent is ordered to answer the petition or otherwise plead within twenty-one days of the date of this order. On the court's own motion, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is dismissed as a respondent. Mailed notice.(psm, )

Order Form (01/2005)

United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Name of Assigned Judge
or Magistrate Judge

SHARON JOHNSON
COLEMAN

CASE NUMBER

Sitting Judge if Other
than Assigned Judge

11 C 7484

DATE

January 4, 2012

Larry Frazier (#A-80194) vs. Warden Gerardo Acevedo, et al.

CASE
TITLE
DOCKET ENTRY TEXT:

The court construes the petitioner’s trust account statement [#3] as a motion to proceed in forma pauperis and
grants the motion. The respondent is ordered to answer the petition or otherwise plead within twenty-one days
of the date of this order. On the court’s own motion, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is dismissed as a
respondent.
O [For further details see text below.]

Docketing to mail notices.

STATEMENT
Larry Frazier, an Illinois state prisoner, has filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The petitioner challenges his conviction for home invasion on the grounds that: (1) his
enhanced sentence violated Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), because the aggravating factors
triggering the extended sentence were not presented to a jury; and (2) trial counsel provided ineffective
representation. The case has been transferred to this district because the petitioner was convicted in Cook
County.

The petitioner having shown that he is indigent, his motion to proceed in forma pauperis is

granted.
The respondent is ordered to answer the petition or otherwise plead within twenty-one days of the date
this order is entered on the clerk’s docket. This preliminary order to respond does not, of course, preclude the
State from making whatever waiver, exhaustion, procedural default, or timeliness arguments it may wish to
present.
The petitioner is instructed to file all future papers concerning this action with the Clerk of Court in care
of the Prisoner Correspondent. The petitioner must provide the court with the original plus a judge’s copy
(including a complete copy of any exhibits) of every document filed. In addition, the petitioner must send an
exact copy of any court filing to the Chief, Criminal Appeals Division, Attorney General’s Office, 100 West
Randolph Street, 12th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60601. Every document filed by the petitioner must include a
(CONTINUED)
mjm

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STATEMENT (continued)
certificate of service stating to whom exact copies were sent and the date of mailing. Any document that is sent
directly to the judge or that otherwise fails to comply with these instructions may be disregarded by the court or
returned to the petitioner.
Finally, on the court’s own motion, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is dismissed as a respondent.
See Hogan v. Hanks, 97 F.3d 189, 190 (7th Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1171 (1997) (a state’s attorney
general is a proper party in a habeas petition only if the petitioner is not then confined); see also Rules 2(a) and
(b) of Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases. In this case, the petitioner is not challenging a future sentence, but
rather his present confinement. Therefore, Illinois’ Attorney General is not a proper respondent.

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