TAYLOR v. COLEMAN et al

Filing 2

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER granintg provisional in forma pauperis status and transferring petition to the U.S.D.C. for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Signed by Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell on 04/22/2014. (Mitchell, Robert)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

THOMAS DUANE TAYLOR, GJ-7699,
Petitioner,

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v.
BRIAN V. COLEMAN, et al.,
Respondents.

MEMORANDUM and ORDER
Thomas Duane Taylor, an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette has
presented a petition for a writ of habeas corpus which he seeks leave to prosecute in forma
pauperis.1
Taylor is presently serving an 18 to36 year sentence imposed by the Court of Common
Pleas of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
It is provided in 28 U.S.C. '2241(d) that:
Where an application for a writ of habeas corpus is made by a person in custody
under the judgment and sentence of a State court of a state which contains two or
more Federal judicial districts, the application may be filed in the district court for
the district wherein such person is in custody or in the district court for the district
within which the State court was held which convicted and sentenced him and
each of such district courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction to entertain the
application. The district court for the district wherein such an application is filed
in the exercise of its discretion and in furtherance of justice may transfer the
application to the other district court for hearing and determination.
While the petitioner is in custody in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the trial court
which sentenced him is located in Lehigh County which is located in the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania. Since it would appear that the interests of justice would best be served by
transferring the instant petition to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, the petition will be transferred to that District.

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Although Taylor labels his petition as a "Rule 60(b) motion in lieu of writ", the relief he seeks is "to vacate
plaintiff's judgment of commitment [by the state court] and release, or remand for re-sentencing." Clearly, this relief
falls within the ambit of 28 U.S.C. §2254 and the petition will be treated as one seeking habeas corpus relief.

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An appropriate Order shall be entered.

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ORDER
AND NOW, this 22nd day of April, 2014, for the reasons set forth in the foregoing
Memorandum, IT IS ORDERED that leave to proceed in forma pauperis is provisionally granted
and IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the above captioned petition for a writ of habeas corpus be
transferred forthwith to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

s/ Robert C. Mitchell
United States Magistrate Judge

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