Garcia v. Superintendent of Great Meadow Correctional Facility

Jesus H. Garcia, pro se, moves for leave to file a successive 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition challenging his 2009 New York conviction for burglary and sexual abuse. He has previously filed multiple § 2254 petitions challenging that conviction, each of which was dismissed as ■ incomprehensible. The preliminary question is whether such dismissals are “on the merits,” thus making his proposed § 2254 petition “successive.”

We hold that an order denying a § 2254 petition as incomprehensible is “on the merits” for the purposes of the successive-petition requirements if the petitioner was on notice that…