Drawbaugh v. Beard et al
Filing
78
MEMORANDUM ORDER re 72 Order Adopting Report and Recommendations. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that a certificate of appealability SHALL NOT ISSUE. Signed by Honorable A. Richard Caputo on 5/18/12. (jam, )
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
MICHAEL DRAWBAUGH,
CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:10-1929
Petitioner,
v.
(JUDGE CAPUTO)
JEFFREY BEARD and MICHAEL W.
(MAGISTRATE JUDGE SMYSER)
CURLEY, SUPERINTENDENT,
Respondents.
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Presently before the Court is the above captioned matter which has been remanded
by the Third Circuit solely for a determination as to the issuance of a certificate of
appealability (“COA”). In my January 6, 2012 Order (Doc. 72), I adopted Magistrate Judge
Smyser’s Report and Recommendation (“R & R”) dismissing Petitioner’s habeas petition.
However, in my Order, I failed to address the issue of the COA. Because reasonable jurists
would agree that Petitioner’s motion was untimely filed, a COA shall not issue.
Petitioner is proceeding in this habeas corpus action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
(Doc. 1.) On November 9, 2011, Magistrate Judge Smyser issued a R & R recommending
Petitioner’s Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus be denied. (Doc. 68.)
According to
Magistrate Judge Smyser, Petitioner’s petition was untimely filed and was not subject to
equitable tolling. (Doc. 68.) In an Order dated January 6, 2012, I adopted Magistrate Judge
Smyser’s R & R. (Doc. 72.)
Petitioner filed a Notice of Appeal on January 20, 2012. (Doc. 32.) Subsequently,
in an Order filed May 17, 2012, the Third Circuit directed the Court to issue a COA or state
reasons why a COA should not issue. (Doc. 34.)
When a state prisoner seeks a writ of habeas corpus, he does not enjoy the
“absolute entitlement to appeal a district court's denial of his petition.” Miller-El v. Cockrell,
537 U.S. 322, 335 (2003) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 2253). The prisoner must first obtain a
COA in order for an appeal to appear before the court of appeals. Id.
As to the issuance of the COA, the Third Circuit Local Appellate Rule 22.2 provides
the following:
At the time a final order denying a petition under 28 U.S.C. §
2254 or § 2255 is issued, the district judge will make a
determination as to whether a certificate of appealability should
issue. If the district judge issues a certificate, the judge must
state the specific issue or issues that satisfy the criteria of 28
U.S.C. § 2253. If an order denying a petition under § 2254 or §
2255 is accompanied by an opinion or a magistrate judge’s
report, it is sufficient if the order denying the certificate
references the opinion or report. If the district judge has not
made a determination as to whether to issue a certificate of
appealability by the time of the docketing of the appeal, the
clerk will enter an order remanding the case to the district court
for a prompt determination as to whether a certificate should
issue.
Third Circuit LAR 22.2.
To be issued a COA, the petitioner must satisfy the requirements of § 2253 by
making a “substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.” Miller-El, 537 U.S. at
336 (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2)). It is not necessary for a petitioner to establish “that
he will prevail.” Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 323. Instead, when courts reject “constitutional
claims on the merits, the showing required to satisfy § 2253(c) is straightforward: the
petitioner must demonstrate that reasonable jurists would find the district court's
assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S.
473, 484 (2000). However, if the claim is rejected on procedural grounds, the petitioner
must establish a substantial showing that a constitutional right has been denied as a
prerequisite to “consideration of the procedural issues in an appeal under Section 2254.”
Coady v. Vaughn, 251 F.3d 480, 488 (3d Cir.2001).
Even where this has been
demonstrated, the COA “should issue when the prisoner shows, at least, that jurists of
reason would find it debatable whether the petition states a valid claim of the denial of a
constitutional right and that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court
was correct in its procedural ruling.” Slack, 529 U.S. at 484.
As set forth in the Court’s January 6, 2012 Memorandum (Doc. 72), Petitioner’s claim
was untimely filed and did not satisfy the limited circumstances in which equitable tolling is
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applicable. See Schlueter v. Varner, 384 F.3d 69, 77 (3d Cir.2004) (“(1) he has been
pursuing his rights diligently, and (2) some extraordinary circumstance stood in his way and
prevented timely filing”). In particular, the Third Circuit has specifically limited equitable
tolling of AEDPA' s limitations period to the following circumstances: (1) where the
defendant (or the court) actively misled the plaintiff; (2) where the plaintiff was in some
extraordinary way prevented from asserting his rights; or (3) where the plaintiff timely
asserted his rights mistakenly in the wrong forum. Miller v. NJ State Dept. of Corr., 145 F.3d
616 (3d Cir.1998); Thomas v. Snyder, 2001 WL 1555239, at *3–4 (D.Del. Nov.28, 2001).
As I previously noted, the circumstances that prevented Petitioner from timely filing
his petition were not extraordinary, just unfortunate. There is no evidence that prison
officials actively thwarted Mr. Drawbaugh’s attempts to file his petition, nor that he asserted
his rights in the wrong forum. While this case is somewhat analogous to missing or
misdirected transcript and records cases, Mr. Drawbaugh argues he was deprived of
something more fundamental, the 2254 form itself. But he was not deprived of it. Rather,
he simply did not know that the library had a copy of West’s Federal Civil Judicial Procedure
and Rules, which contains the 2254 form. If he had known it, he could have photocopied
it or written it out by hand. While prison personnel could have been more helpful in pointing
him to this material or making it more readily available to him, this oversight is not
extraordinary.
Here, as the law and the facts are clear regarding the extraordinary
circumstances required in the Third Circuit to qualify for equitable tolling, and Petitioner fails
to meet these requirements, a COA will not issue.
ORDER
NOW this 18th day of May, 2012, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that a certificate of
appealability SHALL NOT ISSUE.
/s/ A. Richard Caputo
A. Richard Caputo
United States District Judge
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