CARAFAS v. LAVALLEE, WARDEN
No. 71
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 27, 1968. - Decided May 20, 1968.
391 U.S. 234
MR. JUSTICE FORTAS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case has a lengthy procedural history. In 1960, petitioner was convicted of burglary and grand larceny in New York state court proceedings and was sentenced to concurrent terms of three to five years. On direct appeal (following Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (1961)), petitioner claimed that illegally obtained evidence had been introduced against him at trial. The Appellate Division affirmed the conviction without opinion, People v. Carafas, 14 App. Div. 2d 886, 218 N. Y. S. 2d 536 (1961), as did the New York Court of Appeals, 11 N. Y. 2d 891, 182 N. E.
Thereafter, complex proceedings took place in which petitioner sought in both federal and state courts to obtain relief by writ of habeas corpus, based on his claim that illegally seized evidence was used against him. 334 F. 2d 331 (1964); petition for writ of certiorari denied, 381 U. S. 951 (1965). On November 5, 1965, the United States District Court, as directed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (334 F. 2d 331 (1964)), heard petitioner‘s claim on the merits. It dismissed his petition on the ground that he had failed to show a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Petitioner appealed in circumstances hereinafter related. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed the appeal. On March 20, 1967, a petition for a writ of certiorari was filed here. We granted the petition, 389 U. S. 896 (1967), to consider whether, because of facts to which we later refer, the Court of Appeals’ dismissal conformed to our holding in Nowakowski v. Maroney, 386 U. S. 542 (1967). But first we must consider the State‘s contention that this case is now moot because petitioner has been unconditionally released from custody.
Petitioner applied to the United States District Court for a writ of habeas corpus in June 1963. He was in custody at that time. On March 6, 1967, petitioner‘s sentence expired,2 and he was discharged from the parole status in which he had been since October 4, 1964. We issued our writ of certiorari on October 16, 1967 (389 U. S. 896).
Parker v. Ellis held that when a prisoner was released from state prison after having served his full sentence, this Court could not proceed to adjudicate the merits of the claim for relief on his petition for habeas corpus which he had filed with the Federal District Court. This Court held that upon petitioner‘s unconditional release the case became “moot.” Parker was announced in a per curiam decision.3
It is clear that petitioner‘s cause is not moot. In consequence of his conviction, he cannot engage in certain businesses;4 he cannot serve as an official of a labor union for a specified period of time;5 he cannot vote in any election held in New York State;6 he cannot serve as a juror.7 Because of these “disabilities or burdens [which] may flow from” petitioner‘s conviction, he has “a substantial stake in the judgment of conviction which survives the satisfaction of the sentence imposed on him.” Fiswick v. United States, 329 U. S. 211, 222 (1946). On account of these “collateral consequences,”8 the case is
The substantial issue, however, which is posed by Parker v. Ellis, is not mootness in the technical or constitutional sense, but whether the statute defining the habeas corpus jurisdiction of the federal judiciary in respect of persons in state custody is available here. In Parker v. Ellis, as in the present case, petitioner‘s application was filed in the Federal District Court when he was in state custody, and in both the petitioner was unconditionally released from state custody before his case could be heard in this Court. For the reasons which we here summarize and which are stated at length in the dissenting opinions in Parker v. Ellis, we conclude that under the statutory scheme, once the federal jurisdiction has attached in the District Court, it is not defeated by the release of the petitioner prior to completion of proceedings on such application.
The federal habeas corpus statute requires that the applicant must be “in custody” when the application for habeas corpus is filed. This is required not only by the repeated references in the statute,9 but also by the history of the great writ.10 Its province, shaped to guarantee the most fundamental of all rights,11 is to provide an effective and speedy instrument by which judicial inquiry may be had into the legality of the detention of a person. See Peyton v. Rowe, ante, p. 54.12
But the statute does not limit the relief that may be granted to discharge of the applicant from physical custody. Its mandate is broad with respect to the relief that may be granted. It provides that “[t]he court shall . . . dispose of the matter as law and justice require.”
In the present case, petitioner filed his application shortly after June 20, 1963, while he was in custody. He was not released from custody until March 6, 1967, two weeks before he filed his petition for certiorari here. During the intervening period his application was under consideration in various courts. Petitioner is entitled to consideration of his application for relief on its merits. He is suffering, and will continue to suffer, serious disabilities because of the law‘s complexities and not because of his fault, if his claim that he has been illegally convicted is meritorious. There is no need in the statute, the Constitution, or sound jurisprudence for denying to petitioner his ultimate day in court.
This case illustrates the validity of THE CHIEF JUSTICE‘S criticism that the doctrine of Parker simply aggravates the hardships that may result from the “intolerable delay[s] in affording justice.” Parker v. Ellis, supra, at 585 (dissenting opinion). The petitioner in this case was sentenced in 1960. He has been attempting to liti-
We turn now to the substance of the question as to which we granted certiorari. Petitioner‘s first hearing on the merits in the Federal District Court was held on November 5, 1965.15 The District Court dismissed the petition for habeas corpus, denying petitioner‘s claim that evidence used against him had been obtained by an illegal search and seizure. The District Court issued a
In Nowakowski, we held that “when a district judge grants . . . a certificate [of probable cause], the court of appeals must grant an appeal in forma pauperis (assuming the requisite showing of poverty), and proceed to a disposition of the appeal in accord with its ordinary procedure.” At 543. Although Nowakowski was decided after the Court of Appeals dismissed petitioner‘s appeal, its holding applies to a habeas corpus proceeding which, like this one, was not concluded at the time Nowakowski was decided. Cf. Eskridge v. Washington Prison Board, 357 U. S. 214 (1958); see also Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U. S. 618, 628, n. 13 and 639, n. 20 (1965); Tehan v. Shott, 382 U. S. 406, 416 (1966).
Respondent argues that the denial of the motion to proceed in forma pauperis by the Court of Appeals in this case and the dismissal of the appeal were permissible because the Court had before it the entire District Court record and because respondent‘s motion to dismiss and
Accordingly, the judgment below is vacated and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN and MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring.
Although we joined the per curiam decision in Parker v. Ellis, 362 U. S. 574, we are now persuaded that what the Court there decided was wrong insofar as it held that even though a man be in custody when he initiates
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN also notes that his views upon the issue discussed in his separate concurring opinion in Parker, id., at 576, have not changed.