Habeas Corpus Blog

Habeas Corpus - House Cleaning

For months (actually since last October), I have been meaning to change the different pages on the right side of the blog.  When I say "pages," I mean those links under the title "Important Info."

For a long time, I had pages up for 2009 COA Grants and 2009 Habeas Grants.  Their usefulness expired a long time ago.  Actually they pretty much expired the day I put up the Pending Second Circuit Cases page.  So I have been meaning to take them down.

And for a long time, I have been meaning to put up the two most important habeas statutes for state prisoners, 28 USC 2244 and 28 USC 2254.

Today, I have finally taken these steps.  So, no more pages talking about cases from an expired decade.  And, even better, through one simple link, you can now read the two most relevant habeas statutes anytime you want when you read this blog!  Okay, it's not the biggest deal.  But it cannot be denied that it makes a lot of sense.  Maybe in the future I'll add the RGHCCUS2254.*

*See the Habeas Corpus - Abbreviations page to figure out what that is.

And I changed the name of the Supreme Court page to reflect that it covers all of the cases from the current term.  And that's its new name: Supreme Court Cases - Current Term.

With all these improvements, I feel I can borrow Charlie Sheen's triumphant new slogan: Winning.  Or has it become tired already?  Either way, this video is fun:

  

And this one too, thanks Jimmy Kimmel:

 

Habeas Corpus - PDF Help

The Second Circuit requires that every pdf that gets filed with the court be text-searchable.

I know that my office has struggled with this rule.  We have had no problems with briefs and motions.  It has also been a breeze with the forms that the court has made available on its website.

But other documents, like the appendix, have been tricky.  We know what we are supposed to do.  But things have not always worked out the way they should.

The Second Circuit is now offering help.  Up on the clerk's office website, the court has provided instructions on how to make pdf's text-searchable, as well as how to combine and split pdf's and even how to paginate them.

Let's hope that this minimizes everyone's headaches in the future.

Habeas Corpus - Resources

In my never-ending search for interesting habeas stuff around the internet, I came across the Capital Defense Network's website.  More specifically, it has a Habeas Assistance and Training page.

The page provides a bunch of resources, geared mostly towards habeas in capital cases (which is not also relevant to New York cases).  Nevertheless, most of it is relevant, especially when it comes to AEDPA related issues. 

Among the relevant links is a nice Supreme Court page, providing up to date information about pending and recently decided cases.

In addition, there is a Substantive Law page with blurbs about Supreme Court decisions covering different constitutional issues.

Finally, there is Federal Habeas Corpus Update.  It appears that this update is updated every two years, and the most recent one was last summer (meaning Summer 2009).  Just beware: it is a gigantic, gigantic file (10.6 MB, making it nearly 2,000 pages long).  On the other hand, you can download individual sections, which makes it easier.  The substantive content of the update is a list of cases with a short discussion of each case grouped together by issue.

So, a lot of good stuff there.  Worth the time to check it out.