Schroeder v. Renico

• Decision Date: 23 July 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-10430-BC.,00-10430-BC.
• Citation: 156 F.Supp.2d 838
• Parties: Patrick SCHROEDER, Petitioner, v. Paul RENICO, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan

156 F.Supp.2d 838

Patrick SCHROEDER, Petitioner, v. Paul RENICO, Respondent.

No. 00-10430-BC.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Northern Division.

July 23, 2001.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Patrick Schroeder, St. Louis, MO, pro se.

Vincent J. Leone, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Lansing, MI, Bethany L. Sceib, Lansing, MI, for defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTION TO STAY PROCEEDINGS AND DISMISSING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS WITHOUT PREJUDICE

LAWSON, District Judge.

Petitioner, Patrick Schroeder, presently confined at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Michigan, has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Respondent filed a motion on March 28, 2001 to dismiss the petition because it contains unexhausted claims. However, in addition to his habeas corpus application challenging his conviction and sentence, petitioner has filed a motion to stay proceedings in this Court pending adjudication in the state courts of his motion for relief from judgment filed pursuant to Mich. Ct. R. 6.500, et seq. Because adequate time remains before the expiration of the one-year statute of limitations for petitioner to refile his habeas action in this Court after having exhausted his claims in state court, and there is no necessity to stay the proceedings since petitioner has a properly filed application for post-conviction relief pending in the Michigan state courts, the Court will deny petitioner's motion to stay the proceedings and will dismiss the application for writ of habeas corpus without prejudice.

I.

Petitioner seeks the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his nolo contedere plea-based conviction and sentence for second-degree home invasion. Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.110a(3). Petitioner was convicted of that offense in the Branch County, Michigan Circuit Court on February 26, 1999 and sentenced as a third felony habitual offender to eighteen to thirty years imprisonment for this offense. Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.110a(6); Mich. Comp. Laws § 769.11(1)(a).¹ Petitioner's conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals on August 11, 1999 and by the Michigan Supreme Court on September 26, 2000. Petitioner was denied relief in the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Petitioner filed his application for a writ of habeas corpus with this Court on October 19, 2000,² together with a motion to stay proceedings. In the motion, petitioner requests a stay from this Court so that he may exhaust state court remedies concerning claims presented in his pending state motion for relief from judgment and the present habeas petition which were not properly presented or exhausted in his direct appeal.

The petition raises four issues:

I. The trial judge would not allow petitioner to withdraw his no-contest plea.

II. Petitioner's attorney was ineffective.

III. The trial court failed to hear petitioner's motion for dismissal for violating Michigan's "180-day rule" denying petitioner his right to a speedy trial.

IV. The minimum sentence is not proportional.

II.

A prisoner filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 must first exhaust all state remedies. O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 845, 119 S.Ct. 1728, 144 L.Ed.2d 1 (1999)("state prisoners must give the state courts one full opportunity to resolve any constitutional issues by invoking one complete round of the State's established appellate review process"); Rust v. Zent, 17 F.3d 155, 160 (6th Cir.1994). Exhaustion requires that a prisoner "fairly present" the substance of each federal constitutional claim³ to the state courts using citations to the United States Constitution, federal decisions using constitutional analysis, or state decisions employing constitutional analysis in similar fact patterns. Levine v. Torvik, 986 F.2d 1506, 1516 (6th Cir.1993). "The exhaustion requirement is satisfied when the highest court in the state in which the petitioner was convicted has been given a full and fair opportunity to rule on petitioner's claims." Rust, 17 F.3d at 160. A petitioner must present each ground to both appellate courts. Welch v. Burke, 49 F.Supp.2d 992, 998 (E.D.Mich. 1999); see also Hafley v. Sowders, 902 F.2d 480, 483 (6th Cir.1990). The burden is on the petitioner to prove exhaustion. Rust, 17 F.3d at 160.

As stated in Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 103 S.Ct. 276, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982), "[i]t is not enough that all the facts necessary to support the federal claim were before the state courts ... or that a somewhat similar state-law claim was made." Anderson, 459 U.S. at 6, 103 S.Ct. 276 (footnote omitted). A Michigan prisoner is required to raise each issue he seeks to present in the federal habeas proceeding before the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court. Hafley, 902 F.2d at 483.

In this case, petitioner has not exhausted his available state court remedies with respect to his ineffective assistance claims and his denial of speedy trial and "180 day rule" claim. Petitioner acknowledges as much, albeit that he has a state court post-conviction application pending raising these issues.

Generally, a federal district court must dismiss a "mixed" petition for a writ of habeas corpus, that is, one containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims, "leaving the prisoner with the choice of returning to state court to exhaust his claims or of amending and resubmitting the habeas petition to present only exhausted claims to the district court." Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 510, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982);⁴ see also O'Guinn v. Dutton, 88 F.3d 1409, 1412 (6th Cir.1996). "[A] petition containing at least one issue which was not presented to the state courts must be dismissed for failure to comply with the total exhaustion rule." Rust, 17 F.3d at 160.

Because petitioner acknowledges that his petition includes unexhausted issues, including his claim that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel concerning investigation of the factual basis for an alibi defense and advising petitioner to plead no contest, the functional equivalent of a guilty plea for conviction and sentencing purposes, despite his innocence, the petition should be dismissed as a mixed petition unless the petitioner can demonstrate some equitable or extraordinary reason that an alternate procedure should be employed.⁵

III.

A federal district court has the authority to abate or dismiss a federal habeas action pending resolution of state post-conviction proceedings. Brewer v. Johnson, 139 F.3d 491, 493 (5th Cir.1998). However, in order to stay federal proceedings and hold a habeas petition in abeyance pending resolution of state court proceedings, there must be exceptional or unusual circumstances. Williams v. Vaughn, 3 F.Supp.2d 567, 576 (E.D.Pa. 1998); Parker v. Johnson, 988 F.Supp. 1474, 1476 (N.D.Ga.1998).

Petitioner has failed to allege any exceptional or unusual circumstances that would justify staying federal proceedings while petitioner attempts to exhaust his additional claims in the Michigan courts. Likewise, petitioner has failed to demonstrate that he would be prejudiced if the petition were dismissed without prejudice. Title 28 of the United States Code § 2244(d)(2) expressly provides that the time during which a properly filed application for state post-conviction relief or other collateral review is pending shall not be counted towards the period of limitations contained in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). Matthews v. Abramajtys, 39 F.Supp.2d 871, 874 (E.D.Mich.1999). Because the one-year statute of limitations, or at least so much of it that remains unexpired, is tolled during the pendency of a state post-conviction motion, a motion for stay of a federal habeas corpus proceeding is not necessary or appropriate to preserve the federal forum for all of petitioner's claims. Healy v. DiPaolo, 981 F.Supp. 705, 708 (D.Mass. 1997). The AEDPA does not require a court to hold a habeas corpus petition in abeyance pending the exhaustion of new claims in state court. Id. Therefore, a federal district court does not abuse its discretion in dismissing a federal habeas petition without prejudice, rather than holding it in abeyance, while the petitioner's properly filed application for state post-conviction review is pending. Brewer, 139 F.3d at 493; see also Parisi v. Cooper, 961 F.Supp. 1247, 1249 (N.D.Ill.1997).

According to petitioner, the Michigan Supreme Court denied him relief on September 26, 2000. If this date is correct, petitioner's conviction became final ninety days later, on December 25, 2000, when the deadline for seeking a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court expired.⁶ Petitioner then had twelve months — until December 26, 2001 — within which to file his habeas petition, or to toll the statute of limitations. Petitioner states that he filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Mich. Ct. R. 6.500, et seq., on or about February 4, 2001.

The present habeas petition was filed on October 19, 2000, before petitioner filed his motion for relief from judgment in state court and before petitioner's conviction became final in state court. The Supreme Court has held that the filing of a federal habeas corpus petition does not trigger 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2) to suspend the running of the one-year statute of limitations. Duncan v. Walker, 531 U.S. 991, 121 S.Ct. 2120, 150 L.Ed.2d 251 (2001). Although the Court's decision did not preclude the district courts from "retain[ing] jurisdiction over a meritorious claim and stay[ing] proceedings pending the complete exhaustion of state remedies", or from "deeming the limitations period tolled for [a federal] petition as a matter of equity," Id. at 2130 (Stevens, J., concurring), there is no need to resort to these procedural remedies in this case.

A properly filed application within the meaning of 28 U.S.C....