Jernigan v. Williams
Filing
6
MEMORANDUM Opinion and Order: Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 11/5/2015. Mailed notice (aee, )
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
ROBERT LeMONTE JERNIGAN,
Petitioner,
v.
TERRY WILLIAMS, WARDEN,
Respondent.
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Case No. 15 C 9887
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Pro se petitioner Robert LeMonte Jernigan ("Jernigan"), using the printed form of
Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus ("Petition") provided by the Clerk's Office for use by state
prisoners seeking relief under 28 U.S.C. ยง 2254 1, seeks to challenge his 1988 state court
convictions on charges of murder, home invasion, residential burglary and robbery. Though
Jernigan's Petition appears to pose a good many other problems (including what plainly appears
to be its untimeliness under Section 2844(d)(1)), this Court need not address them because of one
critical component of Jernigan's litigation history.
Some 18 years ago Jernigan attempted to bring another federal habeas petition, Jerningan
v. Page, 97 C 2894, which was assigned to this Court's then colleague Honorable Wayne
Andersen. After Judge Andersen denied that petition on the merits in 2000 WL 1154069 (N.D.
Ill. Aug. 14, 2000), our Court of Appeals denied Jernigan's request for a certificate of
appealability in its Case No. 00-3457 (7th Cir. Jan. 23, 2001).
That being so, Section 2244(b)(3)(A) requires Jernigan to file a motion in our Court of
Appeals for an order authorizing this District Court to consider a second or successive
1
Further references to provisions of Title 28 will simply take the form "Section --,"
omitting the prefatory 28 U.S.C.
application such as this one. Jernigan's failure to have filed such a motion calls for dismissal of
the current Petition under either Section 2244(b)(1) or 2244(b)(2) (which of those is applicable
depends on whether or not the claims he now presents were presented in his 1997 effort, a
determination that need not be made now under the circumstances).
Accordingly the Petition is denied and this case is dismissed. One further thought -before Jernigan even considers whether to expend any more time and effort in undertaking a
federal challenge to his convictions by filing a Section 2244(b) motion in the Court of Appeals,
he must recognize that Section 2244(d)(1) establishes a short one-year period of limitation for
federal habeas relief, and nothing in his present filing even hints at an ability to overcome that
hurdle. 2 But if he nevertheless elects to proceed, this Court complies with Rule 11(a) of the
Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts by denying a certificate
of appealability from this final order adverse to Jernigan. Jernigan is advised, in accordance with
that Rule, that he may seek such a certificate from the Court of Appeals under Fed. R. App. P.
22. 3
__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: November 5, 2015
2
Indeed, this Court has obtained a Westlaw Next printout detailing Jernigan's entire
litigation history, and it unsurprisingly (given the long-ago commencement date of the ticking of
the one-year limitation clock prescribed by Section 2244(b)(1)) shows no way in which the
Section 2244(b)(2) tolling provision could have prevented that clock from running out years ago.
3
Jernigan has accompanied his Petition with two other forms provided by the Clerk's
Office: an In Forma Pauperis Application ("Application") and a Motion for an Attorney
Representation ("Motion"). Even though a federal habeas petition carries only a $5 price tag for
its filing, this Court will simply deny both the Application and Motion as moot in light of the
threshold dismissal of the Petition in this action.
-2-
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