Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

U.S. Supreme Court Rule 12.4 prescribes as follow.

�When two or more judgments are sought to be reviewed on a writ of certiorari to the same court and involve identical or closely related questions, a single petition for a writ of certiorari covering all the judgments suffices. A petition for a writ of certiorari may not be joined with any other pleading, except that any motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis shall be attached.�

Does this mean that I can combine two petitions such as (1) petition for certiorari and (2) petition for a writ of habeas corpus if I attach the motion for leave to proceed in Forma Pauperis?


Asked on 2/08/13, 3:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

You can't file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus directly in the U.S. Supreme Court ("USSC"). You can only ask it to review the denial of such a petition by a U.S. Circuit Court or a State Supreme Court. The way to do that is by petitioning the USSC for a writ of certiorari. You must do so within the allotted time.

If the same court that denied your habeas petition also denied a direct appeal of the same conviction at or near the same time, you may use a single cert petition to ask for review of both decisions. But be careful if the decisions were not issued at the same time; if you miss your deadline to seek cert on the earlier decision, you cannot overcome that default by including it in a timely petition involving the later decision.

If you are also seeking leave to proceed in forma pauperis, you must attach that motion to your cert petition. This is true whether you are asking for cert re one decision or two.

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Answered on 2/08/13, 5:12 pm


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