Steven Justin Villalona v. United States
DueProcess HabeasCorpus
What rights under the Due Process clause do prisoners have during the course of 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings?
QUESTION(S) PRESENTED (1) What rights under the Due Process clause do prisoner$' have during the course of 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings? (A) For example, if the record, motion and files: fail to conclusively show that a prisoner is entitled to no relief, does a district court's failure to hold an evidentiary hearing "promptly" as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(b) amount to a violation of Due Process, and if so what is the proper remedy? (B) Whether a courts’ ' failure to consider a pro-se pleadings liberally as required by Haines v. Kerner, 404°U.S. 519, 520-21 (1972), amounts to a denial of Due Process? (C) Whether a judge's failure to recuse! him-or herself as required by 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) during the course of a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings amounts to a denial of Due Process? (D) Whether a district court's failure to articulate which standard of proof it used for determining an ineffective assistance of counsel claim amounts to a denial of Due Process? Alternatively, whether requiring petitioners to prove ineffective assistance of counsel claims by a higher standard than by a preponderance of the evidence is a denial of Due Process? : (E) Whether a district court may correct a Plain Error during the course of a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceeding? Also, whether the failure to correct a Plain Error amounts to a defect in the integrity of the 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings? zi