Opinion ID: 172074
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: facts

Text: In the § 2241 petition underlying appeal number 08-3296, Mr. Fuller claims his pretrial detention on pending Kansas state criminal charges violates the Speedy Trial Act and the Sixth Amendment right to speedy trial. Specifically, in his August 2008 petition, he asserts that he has been awaiting trial since his December 24, 2007, arrest. The district court dismissed the petition without prejudice based on the doctrine enunciated in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 54 (1971). The court also concluded that Mr. Fuller had failed to exhaust his state remedies. He now seeks a COA from this court, contending that he is still awaiting trial, that the federal district court is “protecting Johnson County Kansas,” and that he has tried to exhaust his state remedies. Appeal No. 08-3296, Application for COA at 3. In the § 2241 petition underlying appeal number 08-3305, Mr. Fuller, on behalf of himself and two other pretrial detainees (“petitioners”), challenges the conditions of petitioners’ pretrial confinement, alleging that they have not violated any rules but are housed in administrative segregation and/or solitary confinement, and that they are denied access to television, media, games, and communication. He submits that these conditions constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment and violate petitioners’ Fourteenth -3- Amendment due process rights. The district court dismissed the petition without prejudice, concluding that petitioners’ allegations should be raised pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by each individual in separate actions. Mr. Fuller now seeks a COA from this court (apparently on behalf of himself and the two other pretrial detainees identified in his § 2241 petition). In his application for a COA he maintains that petitioners’ Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights are being violated, takes issue with the district court’s determination that petitioners’ claims sound in civil rights not in habeas, and asserts that the federal district court is “protecting Johnson county Kansas’s Judicial System as well as the Sheriff’s Department.” Appeal No. 08-3305, Application for COA at 3. In the § 2241 petition underlying appeal number 08-3322, Mr. Fuller claims his pretrial detention on pending Kansas state criminal charges violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. Specifically, in his June 2008 petition, he asserts that he has been in state custody since December 24, 2007, but has not been afforded a “probable cause or preliminary hearing.” Appeal No. 08-3322, R., Doc. 1 at 3. His pretrial detention, he further explains, “has imperiled [his] Social Security Benefits, Physical Rehabilitation, other source[s] of income, and impaired family relationships.” Id. The district court dismissed the petition without prejudice, concluding that Mr. Fuller’s pursuit of federal habeas relief was premature because he had neither exhausted his state remedies nor demonstrated that state remedies were unavailable or ineffective to address his -4- claims. Mr. Fuller then filed a Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) motion for reconsideration, contending that he tried to exhaust available state court remedies, which the district court denied. Mr. Fuller now seeks a COA from this court, asserting that his First Amendment rights have been violated, that his Fourth Amendment rights are being violated, that “[t]he [federal] district [court] should have intervened once [the Rule] (60)(b) was filed,” and that “the District Court of Kansas has some kind [of] tie with Johnson County Kansas” and “protect[s] them [sic].” Appeal No. 08-3322, Application for COA at 3. 1