Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2000

Abstract

Petitioner-Appellant Paul Clark appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Trager, J.) denying his 1997 petition for a writ of habeas corpus brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Clark was sentenced in 1982 in a New York state court to thirty-three and one-third years to life in prison, a jury having found him guilty of murder, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon. Clark's petition alleges ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, contending that if not for his attorney's failure to raise several meritorious issues on appeal — including Clark's absence from a portion of his pre-trial Wade hearing — his conviction would have been reversed. The district court dismissed the petition and denied Clark's motion for a certificate of appealability. This Court granted a certificate of appealability, certifying four questions: 1) whether the petition was filed timely under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2); 2) whether the one-year limitation imposed by 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d) violates the Suspension Clause; 3) whether the state court's denial of Clark's coram nobis petition was contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1); and 4) whether Clark was denied effective assistance of counsel on appeal by his attorney's failure to challenge Clark's exclusion from a portion of his Wade hearing. Because respondent-appellee the State of New York (the "State") now concedes the petition was timely, we do not reach the merits of the first or second issues. Because we find no constitutional infirmity in Clark's absence from a portion of his Wade hearing, we affirm.

Comments

214 F.3d 315 (2000)

Paul CLARK, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James STINSON, Superintendent, Respondent-Appellee.

Docket No. 97-2885.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued October 18, 1999.

Decided June 1, 2000.

New York Law School location: File #2797, Box #140

Share

COinS