Patrick Taevon Williams v. Warden of Lee Correctional Institution and Alan Wilson

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation and dismissed Patrick Taevon Williams’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition without prejudice for failure to exhaust state court remedies. The court denied Petitioner’s requests for a Rhines stay, emergency release on bond, and related relief, concluding that the petition was not a mixed petition. The court also denied a certificate of appealability.

Holdings

1. A § 2254 petition containing no exhausted claims must be dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust state court remedies.
2. A petitioner whose § 2254 petition contains no exhausted claims is not entitled to a Rhines stay because the petition is not a mixed petition.
3. The AEDPA limitations period is tolled while a properly filed state post-conviction or other collateral-review application is pending.
4. A certificate of appealability should be denied because Petitioner did not make the required substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right or show that the procedural ruling was debatable among reasonable jurists.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the § 2254 petition should be dismissed without prejudice because Petitioner had failed to exhaust state court remedies.
2. Whether Petitioner was entitled to a stay and abeyance under Rhines v. Weber despite having no exhausted claims.
3. Whether Petitioner was entitled to emergency release on bond.
4. Whether a certificate of appealability should issue.

Disposition

dismissed