(HC) Watkins v. 3rd District Appellate Court ( 2022 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 RICHARD HOWARD WATKINS, No. 2:22-cv-1575 DB P 12 Petitioner, 13 v. ORDER 14 3RD DISTRICT APPELLATE COURT, 15 Respondent. 16 17 Petitioner is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus 18 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner challenges his 2019 Sacramento County Superior Court 19 judgment and sentence. Presently before the court is petitioner’s motion for review and request 20 for copies. (ECF No. 6.) 21 I. Background 22 Petitioner initiated this action by filing the petition on September 1, 2022.1 Four days 23 after the petition was filed on the docket, petitioner filed a notice of errata. (ECF No. 3.) The 24 notice stated that petitioner made a mistake in sending the petition and that the petition should 25 have been sent to the Third District Court of Appeals. (Id.) Petitioner also indicated on the first 26 1 Under the prison mailbox rule, a document is deemed served or filed on the date a prisoner signs 27 the document and gives it to prison officials for mailing. See Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988) (establishing the prison mailbox rule); Campbell v. Henry, 614 F.3d 1056, 1059 (9th Cir. 28 2010) (applying the mailbox rule to both state and federal filings by incarcerated inmates). 1 | page of the petition that it was directed toward the Third District Court of Appeals. (See ECF No. Jlat1.) 3 In light of the notice of errata and the caption on page one of the petition, it appeared that 4 | petitioner did not intend to file a petition in this court. Accordingly, the court construed 5 || petitioner’s notice of errata as a request for voluntary dismissal and closed the case. 6 Thereafter, petitioner filed the instant motion for review and request for copies.? (ECF 7 | No.6.) Therein, petitioner requested that the court explain why the petition was dismissed. He 8 | stated that he did not ask for any of the petitions that he has sent to this court to be dismissed. He 9 | further stated that he did not ask this court to dismiss his direct appeal. He argues that it has been 10 | difficult to get access to legal materials and legal documents due to the pandemic. (d. at 1-2.) 11 | Petitioner further states that his intent in filing the petition was to avoid filing a mixed petition. 12 | Because petitioner has indicated that he did not intend to voluntarily dismiss the petition and in 13 | light of his pro se status, the court will vacate the entry of dismissal and screen the petition in due 14 | course. 15 For the reasons set forth above, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 16 1. Petitioner’s motion for review (ECF No. 6) is granted; 17 2. The Clerk’s notice of voluntary dismissal (ECF No. 4) is vacated; and 18 3. This action is reopened. 19 | Dated: December 27, 2022 21 -BORAH BARNES UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 23 24 25 DB:12 26 || DB/DB Prisoner Inbox/Habeas/R/watk1575.vac 27 |_| — > Petitioner was previously advised that the Clerk’s office will provide copies of documents and 28 | the docket sheet at $0.50 per page. Accordingly, his request for copies has been denied.