Case ID: f-appx_30/html/0285-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Paul A. LEE, Petitioner-Appellant, v. State of WEST VIRGINIA, BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, Respondent-Appellee.
    No. 01-7764.
    United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
    Submitted Feb. 27, 2002.
    Decided March 19, 2002.
    
      Paul A. Lee, Appellant Pro Se. Dawn Ellen Warfield, Office of the Attorney General of West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellee.
    Before WIDENER, NIEMEYER, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.
    Dismissed by unpublished PER CURIAM opinion.
   PER CURIAM.

Paul Lee filed a petition for habeas corpus seeking, in effect, to attack a 1976 West Virginia state conviction for armed robbery because that conviction was used to enhance a 1991 federal sentence for drug trafficking. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp. 2001). The district court denied relief based on its conclusion that Lee was not “in custody” for purposes of the state conviction. Lee appeals.

Regardless of whether Lee is able to meet the in custody requirement for bringing a habeas petition, a prisoner may not (except in narrow circumstances not applicable in this case) collaterally attack an expired conviction that has been used to enhance a sentence for which the prisoner is presently in custody. Daniels v. United States, 532 U.S. 374, 382, 121 S.Ct. 1578, 149 L.Ed.2d 590 (2001); Lackawanna County Disk Attorney v. Coss, 532 U.S. 394, 403-04, 121 S.Ct. 1567, 149 L.Ed.2d 608 (2001). We therefore deny a certificate of appealability and dismiss the appeal. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before us and argument would not aid the decisional process.

DISMISSED.