Ortega v. Stephens

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Texas prisoner Robert Ortega sought a certificate of appealability to appeal the district court’s denial of his Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion, which sought relief from the judgment dismissing his habeas corpus petition. The petition challenged his Texas conviction for assault of a public servant as a violation of the Constitution’s double jeopardy clause. In November 2000, Ortega had an altercation with a police officer of Woodsboro, Texas. Texas first charged Ortega with, and he pleaded guilty to, resisting arrest. Then, the State charged him with, and a jury convicted him of, assault of a public servant based on the same altercation. Ortega appealed the assault conviction to the Texas Court of Appeals, which vacated the conviction, holding that it violated the double jeopardy clause. The Fifth Circuit denied the application: reasonable jurists could not debate the district court’s denial of Ortega’s double-jeopardy claim, and the issues in this case were not adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further. View "Ortega v. Stephens" on Justia Law