Cox v. State of Nevada et al

Filing 9

ORDERED that the petition shall be DISMISSED without prejudice for lack of exhaustion. FURTHER ORDERED that all pending motions are DENIED as moot following upon the dismissal of the action without prejudice. FURTHER ORDERED that a certific ate of appealability is DENIED. Jurists of reason would not find the dismissal of the wholly unexhausted federal petition without prejudice to be debatable or wrong, for the reasons discussed herein. The Clerk of Court shall enter final judgm ent accordingly, dismissing this action without prejudice. Signed by Judge Miranda M. Du on 8/22/2013. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM) (Main Document 9 replaced on 8/22/2013 to correct caption clerical error) (DRM). Modified font on 8/22/2013 (DRM).

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1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 8 *** 9 MICHAEL STEVE COX, MICHALE STEVE COX, 10 Case No. 3:13-cv-00053-MMD-VPC Petitioner, ORDER v. 11 12 STATE OF NEVADA, et al., 13 Respondents. 14 15 This habeas matter comes before the Court on its sua sponte inquiry into 16 whether the petition is subject to dismissal without prejudice because none of the claims 17 therein have been exhausted in the state courts through to the Supreme Court of 18 Nevada. This order follows upon a prior show-cause order (dkt. no. 4) and petitioner’s 19 response (dkt. no. 8) thereto. 20 I. BACKGROUND 21 Petitioner Michael Steve Cox does not challenge his underlying conviction in this 22 action. He instead challenges a forfeiture of good time sentencing credit following upon 23 orders by a small claims court and a state district court finding him to be a vexatious 24 litigant. 25 In the petition, Cox identified only one proceeding in the Supreme Court of 26 Nevada, under No. 61444. However, the online docket records of that court reflect that 27 the state supreme court dismissed that appeal for lack of jurisdiction, without deciding 28 any issue on the merits, because petitioner had not appealed an appealable order. The 1 order noted that no statute or court rule authorized an appeal from an order declaring a 2 litigant to be a vexatious litigant unless he complied with a court order. 3 In his show-cause response, petitioner does not identify any other proceeding in 4 the Supreme Court of Nevada in which his claims have been exhausted through to a 5 final decision by the state supreme court. He instead refers to a currently pending 6 appeal in that court under No. 63585. He does not challenge the proposition that none 7 of the claims in his petition currently are exhausted. Rather, he seeks a stay of the 8 federal proceedings pending the completion of the proceedings in the state supreme 9 court in No. 63585, which were initiated on July 15, 2013. 10 II. GOVERNING LAW 11 The Court may raise issues of exhaustion sua sponte. See, e.g., Aiken v. 12 Spalding, 841 F.2d 881, 883 (9th Cir. 1988). Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A), a habeas 13 petitioner first must exhaust his state court remedies on a claim before presenting that 14 claim to the federal courts. To satisfy this exhaustion requirement, the claim must have 15 been fairly presented to the state courts completely through to the highest court 16 available, in this case the Supreme Court of Nevada. E.g., Peterson v. Lampert, 319 17 F.3d 1153, 1156 (9th Cir. 2003)(en banc); Vang v. Nevada, 329 F.3d 1069, 1075 (9th Cir. 18 2003). In the state courts, the petitioner must refer to the specific federal constitutional 19 guarantee and must also state the facts that entitle the petitioner to relief on the federal 20 constitutional claim. E.g., Shumway v. Payne, 223 F.3d 983, 987 (9th Cir. 2000). That 21 is, fair presentation requires that the petitioner present the state courts with both the 22 operative facts and the federal legal theory upon which his claim is based. E.g., Castillo 23 v. McFadden, 399 F.3d 993, 999 (9th Cir. 2005). The exhaustion requirement ensures 24 that the state courts, as a matter of federal-state comity, will have the first opportunity to 25 pass upon and correct alleged violations of federal constitutional guarantees. See, e.g., 26 Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 731(1991). 27 /// 28 /// 2 1 A petition that is completely unexhausted is subject to immediate dismissal. See, 2 e.g., Rasberry v. Garcia, 448 F.3d 1150, 1154 (9th Cir. 2006); Jiminez v. Rice, 276 F.3d 3 478, 481 (9th Cir.2001). 4 III. DISCUSSION 5 It is undisputed that none of the claims in the petition have been exhausted 6 through to a final decision by the Supreme Court of Nevada either on the merits or 7 applying a state procedural bar. Under established law, a federal petition that is wholly 8 unexhausted may not be stayed and must be dismissed immediately. Rasberry, supra; 9 Jiminez, supra; see also Jones v. McDaniel, No. 08-15458, 2009 WL 890915, slip. op. 10 at **1 (9th Cir. April 2, 2009). 11 The present petition therefore will be dismissed without prejudice for lack of 12 exhaustion. The Court expresses no opinion as to whether the proceedings in No. 13 63585 will exhaust the claims in the current federal petition. 14 IV. 15 16 17 18 CONCLUSION IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the petition shall be DISMISSED without prejudice for lack of exhaustion. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that all pending motions are DENIED as moot following upon the dismissal of the action without prejudice. 19 IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a certificate of appealability is DENIED. Jurists 20 of reason would not find the dismissal of the wholly unexhausted federal petition without 21 prejudice to be debatable or wrong, for the reasons discussed herein. 22 23 The Clerk of Court shall enter final judgment accordingly, dismissing this action without prejudice. 24 25 DATED THIS 22nd day of August 2013. 26 27 MIRANDA M. DU UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 28 3

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