FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
February 5, 2018
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
RICHARD McCLOSKEY,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v. No. 17-8056
(D.C. No. 1:17-CV-00045-SWS)
WYOMING ATTORNEY GENERAL, (D. Wyo.)
Respondent - Appellee.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY *
Before PHILLIPS, McKAY, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner Richard McCloskey seeks a certificate of appealability to appeal
the district court’s dismissal of his § 2254 habeas corpus petition.
In his habeas petition, Petitioner sought review of various state criminal
proceedings against him. These proceedings were either recently decided cases
that Petitioner had not appealed in the Wyoming state courts, or ongoing criminal
cases in which a final judgment had not yet been entered. The district court thus
concluded that the federal habeas petition must be dismissed without prejudice
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of
the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its
persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
based on (1) Petitioner’s failure to exhaust his state court remedies, see 28 U.S.C.
§ 2254(b)(1)(A); see also Allen v. Zavaras, 568 F.3d 1197, 1202 (10th Cir. 2009)
(dismissal of a habeas petition is proper if the failure to exhaust is clear from the
face of the petition), and (2) the Younger abstention doctrine, see Younger v.
Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971).
After thoroughly reviewing Petitioner’s brief and the record on appeal, we
conclude that reasonable jurists would not debate the correctness of the district
court’s procedural ruling. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 478 (2000). We
therefore DENY Petitioner’s request for a certificate of appealability and
DISMISS the appeal. Petitioner’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal
is GRANTED.
Entered for the Court
Monroe G. McKay
Circuit Judge
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