Taylor

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

KENT TAYLOR, Case No. 20-cv-06319-VC (PR)

Petitioner,

ORDER OF DISMISSAL WITH

v. PREJUDICE; DENYING

CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF

CALIFORNIA,

Respondent.

Kent Taylor filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his conviction in the Santa Clara County superior court. On November 4, 2020, the court issued an order of dismissal with leave to amend. In the order, the court noted that Taylor’s petition indicated he was sentenced in August 2017 for approximately one year and his federal petition was filed on September 4, 2020. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a), the federal writ of habeas corpus is only available to people “in custody” at the time the petition is filed (that is, incarcerated or under some other court-ordered restriction on freedom of movement). Because it appeared that Taylor was not in custody when he filed his petition, the court dismissed the petition with leave to amend. Instead of filing an amended petition addressing the custody issue, Taylor filed several unresponsive motions. On…