No. 24-7499

Rodney Mesquias v. United States

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2025-06-25
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: certificate-of-appealability counsel-preparation ineffective-assistance judicial-standard post-conviction trial-continuance
Key Terms:
HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2025-09-29
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the lower courts erred in applying the standard for determining a certificate of appealability in a post-conviction proceeding involving ineffective assistance of counsel

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

No question identified. : Question Pr esented for Review Did the lowe r courts e rr in a pplying the standard for de termining whether a certific ate of appealability should issue in a post-c onvict ion proceeding, in deciding that petitione r had not presented a debatable issue on which reasonable jurists could disagree – whether petitione r received ineffective assista nce of counsel when his first attorne y admitted tha t he did insuffic ient work to be ready for trial from January 2018 to July 2019, the date that the distric t court denied any furthe r trial continua nces, forcing petitione r to hire additiona l counse l to prepare for and try the case three months la ter in Oc tober 2019? i List of Par ties The names of the parties are listed in the caption of this case. The Magistra te Judge ’s Report and Recommendation was issued by the Hon. Ignacio Torteya, III, Unite d States Magistra te Judge for the Southe rn Distric t of Texas, Brownsville Division, and is included at Appe ndix Tab A. The Orde r Adopting Magistra te Judge ’s Report and Recommendation was issue d by the Hon. R olando Olve ra, Unite d States Distric t Judge for the Southe rn Distric t of Texas, Brownsville Division, included at

Docket Entries

2025-10-06
Petition DENIED.
2025-07-10
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/29/2025.
2025-07-08
Waiver of United States of America of right to respond submitted.
2025-07-08
Waiver of right of respondent United States of America to respond filed.
2025-06-18
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 25, 2025)

Attorneys

Rodney Mesquias
Gregory Don Sherwood — Petitioner
Gregory Don Sherwood — Petitioner
United States of America
D. John SauerSolicitor General, Respondent
D. John SauerSolicitor General, Respondent
Moez Mansoor KabaHueston Hennigan LLP, Respondent