Reed v. GoertzReed v. Goertz
Rodney Reed was convicted of capital murder in 1998. Since then, he has sought various forms of post-conviction relief. This case arises from his motion for post-conviction DNA testing, which the Texas state courts denied. Reed brought this lawsuit against certain Texas officials under
I.
Stacey Stites was reported missing on April 23, 1996 when she failed to show up for her morning shift at a local grocery store. Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d 759, 762 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017). A passerby found her body later that day in the brush alongside a backroad in Bastrop County, Texas. Ex Parte Reed, 271 S.W.3d 698, 704 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). Nearby, her shirt and a torn piece of her belt were also found. Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d at 762.
At the time of her death, Stites was engaged to Jimmy Fennell, who was then a police officer in Giddings, Texas, and the two shared his red truck. Id. Fennell claimed that Stites had likely left their apartment in the truck at her usual hour of 3:00 a.m. to make it to her shift at work. The truck was later found in the parking lot of Bastrop High School. Id. The other half of Stites‘s belt lay outside the truck with the buckle intact. Id.
The medical examiner determined that Stites had been strangled with her own belt. Id. He also found intact sperm in Stites‘s vagina and, based on other medical evidence, concluded that Stites had likely been sexually assaulted prior to her death. Id. The police could not initially match the DNA of the sperm to anyone, however, and the investigation proceeded for nearly a year before they matched it to Rodney Reed‘s genetic profile. Reed v. Stephens, 739 F.3d 753, 761 (5th Cir. 2014).
Reed was charged with capital murder. He defended himself on the theory that someone else, perhaps Stites‘s fiancé Fennell, was the murderer. Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d at 775. He argued that his sperm was present not because he had sexually assaulted Stites but because the two had a longstanding sexual relationship that had been carried on in secret. Id. The
Reed appealed his conviction and filed repeated habeas petitions in state court. After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Reed‘s first two habeas petitions, Reed filed a habeas petition in federal court. Reed v. Thaler, No. A-02-CA-142, 2012 WL 2254216 (W.D. Tex. June 15, 2012). The district court permitted limited discovery and depositions and then stayed Reed‘s federal proceedings to allow him to return to state court and exhaust several arguments he had been unable to make up until that point. Reed v. Stephens, 739 F.3d at 763. Reed filed several more habeas petitions in state court and returned to federal court several years later to file an amended habeas petition asserting claims of actual innocence. See id. The district court granted summary judgment to the government on these claims, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court‘s action on appeal. See id.
After Reed‘s federal habeas petition was denied, the state moved to set an execution date. Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d at 764. Reed moved for post-conviction DNA testing of several items discovered on or near Stites‘s body and in Fennell‘s truck under Chapter 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Id. Chapter 64 allows a convicted person to obtain post-conviction DNA testing of biological material if the court finds that certain conditions are met. See
In August 2019, Reed filed a complaint under
II.
We review a district court‘s grant of a motion to dismiss de novo. Waste Mgmt. of La., L.L.C. v. River Birch, Inc., 920 F.3d 958, 963 (5th Cir.), cert denied 140 S. Ct. 628 (2019). To survive a motion to dismiss, a plaintiff must plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007). We must accept all facts as pleaded and construe them in “the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Gonzalez v. Kay, 577 F.3d 600, 603 (5th Cir. 2009) (quoting Dorsey v. Portfolio Equities, Inc., 540 F.3d 333, 338 (5th Cir. 2008)). We review a district court‘s jurisdictional determinations, including determinations
III.
We first consider whether we have jurisdiction to hear this appeal. Goertz argues that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal because of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.2 Goertz is incorrect.
The Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not apply to this case. The Rooker-Feldman doctrine precludes federal courts other than the Supreme Court “from exercising appellate jurisdiction over final state-court judgments.” Lance v. Dennis, 546 U.S. 459, 463 (2006); see also Rooker v. Fid. Tr. Co., 263 U.S. 413, 416 (1923); D.C. Ct. of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 482 (1983). It is a narrow doctrine applicable only to “cases brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments rendered before the
In this case, the district court correctly concluded that the doctrine is inapplicable to Reed‘s § 1983 claim because Reed challenged the constitutionality of Texas‘s post-conviction DNA statute. Reed did not attack the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision itself. Goertz contests that conclusion, arguing that Reed‘s amended complaint “challenged the [Court of Criminal Appeals‘] application of Chapter 64 to him.” Goertz argues that Reed‘s challenge “invited federal court review of a state court‘s judgment and, if successful, would ‘effectively nullify’ the [Court of Criminal Appeals‘] judgment and would succeed only to the extent that the [Court of Criminal Appeals] wrongly decided the issues.”
Goertz‘s argument, however, embraces an expansive version of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine that the Supreme Court has rejected. In Skinner v. Switzer, the Supreme Court considered the question of whether “a convicted state prisoner seeking DNA testing of crime-scene evidence” may “assert that claim in a civil rights action under
This case is no different than Skinner. In state court, Reed asserted that he was entitled to post-conviction DNA testing of certain evidence. See Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d at 764. The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Reed‘s request for post-conviction DNA testing. In these proceedings, Reed challenges “the constitutionality of [Chapter] 64 both on its face and as interpreted, construed, and applied” by the state court. Like in Skinner, Reed does not challenge the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision itself. Instead, he targets “as unconstitutional the Texas statute [that the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision] authoritatively construed.” Skinner, 562 U.S. at 532. If Reed were to succeed in his § 1983 claims, the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision would remain intact. Reed has therefore asserted an “independent claim” that would not necessarily affect the validity of the state-court decision. Exxon, 544 U.S. at 292–93 (quoting GASH Assocs. v. Vill. of Rosemont, 995 F.2d 726, 728 (7th Cir. 1993)); see also Brown v. Taylor, 677 F. App‘x 924, 927 (5th Cir. 2017). The Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not apply.3
IV.
On appeal, Goertz also asserts that Reed‘s claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. Although the district court did not rule on this issue, we can “affirm the district court‘s judgment on any grounds supported by the record.” United States ex rel Farmer v. City of Houston, 523 F.3d 333, 338 n.8 (5th Cir. 2008) (quoting Sobranes Recovery Pool I, LLC v. Todd & Hughes Constr. Corp., 509 F.3d 216, 221 (5th Cir. 2007)). Section 1983 claims are subject to a state‘s personal injury statute of limitations. See Walker v. Epps, 550 F.3d 407, 411 (5th Cir. 2008). In Texas, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years.
“We determine the accrual date of a § 1983 action by reference to federal law.” Walker, 550 F.3d at 414. Our court has not previously decided when the injury accrues in a denial of post-conviction DNA testing claim. However, we have explained that that the limitations period for a § 1983 claim “begins to run ‘the moment the plaintiff becomes aware the he has suffered an injury or has sufficient information to know that he has been injured.‘” Russell v. Bd. of Trustees, 968 F.2d 489, 493 (5th Cir. 1992) (quoting Rodriguez v. Holmes, 963 F.2d 799, 803 (5th Cir. 1992)). The question in this case is when Reed had sufficient information to know of his alleged injury.
Reed alleges that he was denied access to the physical evidence that he wished to test. An injury accrues when a plaintiff first becomes aware, or should have become aware, that his right has been violated. See Russell, 968 F.2d at 493. Here, Reed first became aware that his right to access that evidence was allegedly being violated when the trial court denied his Chapter 64 motion in November 2014. Reed had the necessary information to know that his rights were allegedly being violated as soon as the trial court denied his motion for post-conviction relief.
Moreover, Reed did not need to wait until he had appealed the trial court‘s decision to bring his § 1983 claim. The Supreme Court has emphasized “that § 1983 contains no judicially imposed exhaustion requirement; absent some other bar to the suit, a claim is either cognizable under § 1983 and should immediately go forward, or is not cognizable and
V.
For the foregoing reasons, we therefore AFFIRM the district court‘s dismissal of Reed‘s claims because they are not timely.