Garcia v. Lee

• Decision Date: 17 May 2018
• Docket Number: No. 11-CV-1803 (KMK),11-CV-1803 (KMK)
• Parties: JOSE GARCIA, Petitioner, v. WILLIAMS LEE, Superintendent, Green Haven Correctional Facility, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

JOSE GARCIA, Petitioner, v. WILLIAMS LEE, Superintendent, Green Haven Correctional Facility, Respondent.

No. 11-CV-1803 (KMK)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

May 17, 2018

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT & RECOMMENDATION

Appearances:

Jose Garcia

Stormville, NY

Pro Se Petitioner

Andrew R. Kass, Esq.

Orange County Attorney's Office

Goshen, NY

Counsel for Respondent

KENNETH M. KARAS, District Judge:

Jose Garcia ("Petitioner"), proceeding pro se, has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his April 14, 2005, conviction in New York State Supreme Court, Orange County, for criminal sale of a controlled substance in violation of New York law (the "Petition"). (See Pet. For Writ of Habeas Corpus ("Pet.") (Dkt. No. 1).) The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction on October 6, 2009. People v. Garcia, 885 N.Y.S.2d 771 (App. Div. 2009). The New York Court of Appeals denied Petitioner leave to appeal on March 2, 2010. People v. Garcia, 925 N.E.2d 938 (N.Y. 2010). Respondent filed a Memorandum of Law opposing the Petition on June 14, 2011. (See Resp't's Mem. of Law in Opp'n to Pet. For Writ of Habeas Corpus ("Resp't's Mem.") (Dkt. No. 8).) Petitioner filed a Traverse Declaration and Reply Supplement on September 19, 2011. (See Pet'r's Traverse Decl. in Supp. of Pet. For Writ of Habeas Corpus ("Pet'r's Traverse") 10 (Dkt. No. 20); Pet'r's Reply Supp. ("Pet'r's Reply") (Dkt. No. 21).)¹

In a Report and Recommendation ("R&R"), Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison ("Judge Davison") recommended that the Petition be denied. (See Report & Recommendation ("R&R") 2 (Dkt. No. 41).) Petitioner has objections to the R&R. (See Pet'r's Obj's to R&R ("Obj's") (Dkt. No. 44).) Respondent has not responded to the objections. After a review of the R&R and Petitioner's objections, the Court adopts the result recommended in the R&R and denies the Petition.

I. Discussion

A. Applicable Law

1. Review of a Magistrate Judge's R&R

A district court reviewing a report and recommendation addressing a dispositive motion "may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate judge." 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). Under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(b), a party may submit objections to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation. The objections must be "specific" and "written," Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2), and must be made "[w]ithin 14 days after being served with a copy of the recommended disposition," id.; see also 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), plus an additional three days when service is made pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 5(b)(2)(C)-(F), see Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(d), for a total of seventeen days, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(2).

Where a party submits timely objections to a report and recommendation, as Petitioner has done here, the Court reviews de novo the parts of the report and recommendation to which the party objected. See 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1); Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3). The district court "may adopt those portions of the . . . report [and recommendation] to which no 'specific written objection' is made, as long as the factual and legal bases supporting the findings and conclusions set forth in those sections are not clearly erroneous or contrary to law." Eisenberg v. New England Motor Freight, Inc., 564 F. Supp. 2d 224, 226 (S.D.N.Y. 2008) (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2)).

Finally, pleadings submitted by pro se litigants are held to a less strict standard than those drafted by attorneys. See Fed. Express Corp. v. Holowecki, 552 U.S. 389, 402 (2008) ("Even in the formal litigation context, pro se litigants are held to a lesser pleading standard than other parties." (italics omitted)). Because Petitioner is proceeding pro se, the Court construes his pleadings "to raise the strongest arguments that they suggest." See Triestman v. Fed. Bureau of Prisons, 470 F.3d 471, 475 (2d Cir. 2006) (per curiam) (italics and internal quotation marks omitted). However, this "does not exempt a [pro se litigant] from compliance with relevant rules of procedural and substantive law." Traguth v. Zuck, 710 F.2d 90, 95 (2d Cir. 1983).

2. Standard of Review

Petitions for a writ of habeas corpus are governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), which provides that a state prisoner may seek habeas corpus relief in federal court "on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws . . . of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). "The writ may not issue for any claim adjudicated on the merits by a state court unless the state court's decision was 'contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,' or was 'based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State Court proceeding.'" Epps v. Poole, 687 F.3d 46, 50 (2d Cir. 2012) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)-(2)). In this context, "it is the habeas applicant's burden to show that the state court applied [federal law] to the facts of his case in an objectively unreasonable manner." Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 25 (2002) (per curiam); see also Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 181 (2011) ("The petitioner carries the burden of proof.").

A decision is "contrary to" clearly established Federal law if (1) "the state court applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in [Supreme Court] cases," or (2) "the state court confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from a decision of [the Supreme] Court and nevertheless arrives at a result different from [Supreme Court] precedent." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06 (2000). A decision is "an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law" if a state court "correctly identifies the governing legal rule but applies it unreasonably to the facts of a particular prisoner's case." Id. at 407-08 (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted). "Clearly established Federal law for purposes of § 2254(d)(1) includes only the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of th[e Supreme] Court's decisions. And an unreasonable application of those holdings must be objectively unreasonable, not merely wrong; even clear error will not suffice." White v. Woodall, 134 S. Ct. 1697, 1702 (2014) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); see also id. (noting that a petitioner must show a state court ruling was "so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement" (internal quotation marks omitted)); Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U.S. 465, 473 (2007) ("The question under AEDPA is not whether a federal court believes the state court's determination was incorrect but whether that determination was unreasonable—a substantially higher threshold.").

"Section 2254(d) reflects the view that habeas corpus is a guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems, not a substitute for ordinary error correction through appeal." Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 102-03 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). Consequently, a federal court must deny a habeas petition in some circumstances even if the court would have reached a conclusion different than the one reached by the state court, because "even a strong case for relief does not mean the state court's contrary conclusion was unreasonable." Id. at 102; see also Cullen, 563 U.S. at 202-03 ("Even if the [Federal] Court of Appeals might have reached a different conclusion as an initial matter, it was not an unreasonable application of our precedent for the [state court] to conclude that [the petitioner] did not establish prejudice."); Hawthorne v. Schneiderman, 695 F.3d 192, 197 (2d Cir. 2012) ("Although we might not have decided the issue in the way that the [New York State] Appellate Division did—and indeed we are troubled by the outcome we are constrained to reach—we . . . must defer to the determination made by the state court . . . ." (emphasis added) (citation omitted)).

Additionally, under AEDPA, the factual findings of state courts are presumed to be correct. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); Nelson v. Walker, 121 F.3d 828, 833 (2d Cir. 1997) ("When reviewing a habeas petition, the factual findings of the New York Courts are presumed to be correct." (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted)). The petitioner must rebut this presumption by "clear and convincing evidence." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); see also Cotto v. Herbert, 331 F.3d 217, 233 (2d Cir. 2003) (same).

Finally, only Federal law claims are cognizable in habeas proceedings. "[I]t is not the province of a federal habeas court to reexamine state-court determinations on state-law questions. In conducting habeas review, a federal court is limited to deciding whether a conviction violated the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 67-68 (1991); see also 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) ("The Supreme Court, a Justice thereof, a circuit judge, or a district court shall entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.").

3. Procedural Requirements for Habeas Corpus Relief

"Habeas review is an extraordinary remedy," Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 621 (1998), and a petitioner seeking a writ of habeas corpus must comply with the strict requirements of AEDPA, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Before the Court reviews the merits of a habeas corpus petition, the Court must determine whether Petitioner complied with the procedural requirements set forth in 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244 and 2254.

a. Timeliness

AEDPA imposes upon a petitioner seeking federal habeas relief a one-year statute of...