Lynch v. Standifird, No. 11-6142 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this Case
Pro se prisoner Petitioner Nelson Lynch sought a certificate of appealability to challenge a district court's dismissal of his application of habeas relief. Defendant was sentenced to forty years of imprisonment for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute after having been convicted of two or more felonies. In 2006, he pursued relief from this conviction. In 2011, using the federal district court’s form for habeas applications he asserted that the state court committed plain error in enhancing his sentence under an invalid habitual offender provision. The district court concluded that the application attempted to assert unauthorized second or successive post-conviction relief claims, and denied his request for a COA. Petitioner then applied for a COA from the Tenth Circuit. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit found that Petitioner attacked the validity of his habitual-offender sentence, rather than the manner in which the sentence is being executed, the district court correctly considered the application as a successive or unauthorized application for post-conviction relief. Defendant attempted to reargue the merits of his underlying claims that the court erred in sentencing him. Because no reasonable jurist could debate the district court's decisions in this case, the Court denied Petitioner's request for a COA and dismissed his appeal.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.