LOCKETT v. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY et al

Filing 4

MEMORANDUM/ORDER REOPENING CASE; that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (ECF No. I) is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE;that Petitioner is granted leave to amend his petition to provide sufficientfactual bases to support his claims within thirty (30) days; that the Clerk of the Court shall serve a copy of this Order on Plaintiff by regular U.S. mail and shall CLOSE the file. Signed by Judge Jose L. Linares on 4/20/15. (DD, )

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
MOSES B. LOCKETT,
Civil Action No. 15-1196 (JLL)

Petitioner,
v.

:

MEMORANDUM ORDER

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY, et al.,
Respondents.
The Court having reviewed Petitioner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus
pursuant to 28
U.S.C.

§ 2254 (ECF No. 1), and it appearing that:
1. This Court ordered that the petition be administratively terminated for
failure to pay

the filing fee or file an application to proceed informa pauperis (ECF No.
2).
2. Petitioner paid the filing fee on March 25, 2015 (See ECF Docket Sheet)
.
3. This Court is required to preliminarily review the petition under Rule
4 of the Rules
Governing Section 2254 Cases and determine whether it “plainly appear
s from the petition and
any attached exhibits that the petitioner is not entitled to relief.” Under
this Rule, this Court is
“authorized to dismiss summarily any habeas petition that appears legally
insufficient on its face.”

McFarlandv. Scott, 512 U.S. 849, 856 (1994).
4.

Pursuant to Rule 2(c) of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases,
a petition must

“specify all the grounds for relief available to the petitioner[,] state
the facts supporting each
ground[,J

.

.

.

[and] be printed, typewritten, or legibly handwritten.” Petitions
which provide no

more than “vague and conclusory grounds for habeas relief are
subject to summary dismissal”
I

under the rule. Anderson v. Pennsylvania Attorney General, 82 F. App’x 745, 749 (3d Cir.
2003);
see also United States v. Thomas, 221 F.3d 430, 437 (3d Cir. 2000); United States v. Dawso
n, 857
F.2d 923, 928 (3d Cir. 1988).
5. The instant petition contains only the following statement as to the grounds on which

it is brought: 1 “Ineffective assistance of counsel: Trial counsel’s failure to challenge
the grand
jury indictment, the Miranda hearing, prosecutorial misconduct, Clawans charge, the
aggravating
and mitigating factors, and the imposition of consecutive sentences.”

(ECF No. I at 6).

Petitioner provides no further information regarding the claims he wishes to bring in
his habeas
petition.
6.

Petitioner has failed to provide anything more than extremely vague and conclu
sory

statements which purport to suggest that his trial counsel was ineffective. Petitioner
has failed to
provide any facts to support these assertions, nor provided any context which would
allow
Respondents to effectively respond to his Petition. As such, the petition must be
summarily
dismissed without prejudice.

See Anderson, 82 F. App’x at 749; Thomas, 221 F.3d at 437;

Dawson, 857 F.2d at 928.
IT IS THEREFORE on this

oi.
(4/

day of April, 2015,

ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall reopen this case; and it is further

Although it appears that the handwriting used by Petitoner would under norma
l circumstances
be legible, the quality of the copy provided to this Court is relatively poor and
the Court’s
recitation of the grounds raised in the petition reflects what the Court believe
s Petitioner wrote.
This Court presumes that the Clawans charge refers to State v. Clawans, 38 N.J.
162 (1962),
which permits a New Jersey trial court to charge the jury “that the failure of
a party to produce a
witness who had knowledge of the facts at issue creates an inference that the
party feared those
facts would be unfavorable to it.” Lemons v. Warren, No. 12-2355, 2015
WL 1497330, at *7
(D.N.J, April 1, 2015).
2

ORDERED that the petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C.

§ 2254 (ECF

No. I) is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE; and it is further
ORDERED that Petitioner is granted leave to amend his petition to provide sufficient
factual bases to support his claims within thirty (30) days; and it is further

ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court shall serve a copy of this Order on Plaintiff by
regular U.S. mail and shall CLOSE the file.

Linares, U.S.D.J.

3