Sean Wright v. State of Alaska

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

SEAN WRIGHT, No. 19-35543 Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 3:18-cv-00056-

JKS

STATE OF ALASKA,

Respondent-Appellee.

OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska James K. Singleton, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted March 24, 2022 Pasadena, California

Filed August 31, 2022

Before: Mary H. Murguia, Chief Judge, and Johnnie B. Rawlinson and Ryan D. Nelson, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Chief Judge Murguia; Concurrence by Judge Rawlinson SUMMARY *

Habeas Corpus

The panel affirmed the district court’s judgment dismissing for lack of subject matter jurisdiction Sean Wright’s habeas corpus petition—filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in 2018—challenging his 2009 Alaska conviction on thirteen counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

In 1999, Wright was accused of sexually abusing two young girls, and fled Alaska soon after. The State of Alaska filed an information that same year, but Wright was neither apprehended nor charged by indictment until 2004, when an employment background check in Minnesota…