Young v. NickolsYoung v. Nickols
Before MICHAEL and KING, Circuit Judges, and JAMES R. SPENCER, Chief United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge MICHAEL wrote the opinion, in which Judge KING and Judge SPENCER joined.
OPINION
MICHAEL, Circuit Judge.
A state prisoner appeals the dismissal of his complaint filed under
In 1994 plaintiff Robert E. Young was convicted in South Carolina state court of aggravated assault and battery; he received a ten-year prison sentence, to be suspended after three years and followed by five years probation. In 1998, within a year of his release, Young was convicted (by guilty plea) in the same court of distributing crack cocaine. This time, Young received a ten-year suspended sentence and five years probation. After Young violated the terms of his probation later in 1998, he fled South Carolina for Ohio.
In November 2000 Young was arrested in Ohio as a fugitive from justice, but he was released because the Governor of Ohio had not received an extradition request from the State of South Carolina. Later, in August 2002, Young was arrested for disorderly conduct in Ohio, charged again as a fugitive, and released on his own recognizance. On September 16, 2002, defendant Neil Collier, Young‘s South Carolina probation officer, wrote to the Governor of South Carolina to request a governor‘s warrant for Young‘s extradition. The Governor of South Carolina then sent a request for an extradition warrant to the Governor of Ohio, who issued the warrant on October 21, 2002. Young was never served with this warrant, which was apparently lost.
The Governor of Ohio issued a second warrant for Young‘s extradition on November 26, 2002. Young was arrested under the second governor‘s warrant on November 27, 2002, and brought before a muniсipal court judge in Ross County, Ohio, the same day. Young‘s counsel requested that Young be held in the Ross County jail until December 3, 2002, to provide him the opportunity to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging extradition. No habeas petition was filed, and on December 13, 2002, Collier and another South Carolina probation officer took custody of Young and transported him to South Carolina. Thereafter, in proceedings before the sentencing court in South Carolina, Young admitted to violating the conditions of his probation. As a result, the court revoked the suspension of Young‘s sentence on the assault and battery charge and ordered him to serve eight years on the crack distribution charge.
On Novеmber 20, 2003, Young filed a § 1983 action in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina alleging (among other claims) that Ohio and South Carolina officers violated his civil rights by illegally extraditing him from Ohio to South Carolina. The individuals named as defendants included Collier and other South Carolina probation officers whose “name[s are] not known.” J.A. 6. Young‘s complaint, which sought damages and other relief, was referred to a magistrate judge pursuant to
Bеcause Young‘s complaint was dismissed without prejudice, we first consider our jurisdiction. Generally, an order dismissing a complaint without prejudice is not an appealable final order under
III.
A.
The central question in this appeal is whether Heck requires a state prisoner to have his criminal judgment or sentence set aside before he is allowed to bring a § 1983 action seeking damages (or certain declaratory relief) for illegal extradition. The Supreme Court began its analysis in Heck by reiterating that “habeas corpus is the exclusive remedy for a state prisoner who challenges the fact or duration of his confinement and seeks immediate or speedier release.” 512 U.S. at 481, 114 S.Ct. 2364 (citing Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 488-90, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973)). The Court went on to hold that a prisoner‘s damages claim that would “necessarily require [him] to prove the unlawfulness of his conviction or confinement” cannot be brought under § 1983. Id. at 486, 93 S.Ct. 1827.
Thus, when a state prisoner seeks damages in a § 1983 suit, the district court must cоnsider whether a judgment in favor of the plaintiff would necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence; if it would, the complaint must be dismissed unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that the conviction or sentence has already been invаlidated. But if the district court determines that the plaintiff‘s action, even if successful, will not demonstrate the invalidity of any outstanding criminal judgment against the plaintiff, the action should be allowed to proceed.
Id. at 487, 93 S.Ct. 1827; see also Wilkinson v. Dotson, ___ U.S. ___, ___-___, 125 S.Ct. 1242, 1247-48, 161 L.Ed.2d 253 (2005) (reemphasizing that § 1983 remains available “where success in the civil rights suit would not necessarily vitiate the legality of (not previously invalidated) state confinement“).
In Wirth v. Surles, 562 F.2d 319 (4th Cir.1977), a pre-Heck case, we considered whether a state prisoner could use § 1983 to seek damages for violation of his extradition rights. The prisoner (and plaintiff) in Wirth alleged that South Carolina officers crossed into Georgia, took him into custody, and forcibly transported him back to South Carolina without any extradition proceedings. Although we recognized in Wirth that a fugitive‘s ability to challenge extradition is limited, we emphasized that “law enforcement officials [must follow] the clear mandates of state and federal extradition laws in the apprehension and transportation of fugitives.” Id. at 323. Accordingly, we held “that a complaint alleging the arrest and transportation of a fugitive without extradition proceedings does create a cause of action pursuant to
B.
The South Carolina defendants suggest that we affirm on the alternative ground that Young fails to state a claim against them because he does not allege that they “personally participated in the allegedly defective extradition proceedings.” Br. of Appellees at 5. Although the magistrate judge noted the lack of such an allegation, he recommended dismissal for a different reason—his belief that Young‘s § 1983 claim is barred by Heck. In any event, in documеnts (one captioned “Amend as Claims“) filed after the magistrate judge‘s report, Young alleges (1) that the South Carolina defendants “seized” him in Ohio and transported him back to South Carolina “without any extradition proceedings,” and (2) that Collier, a Sоuth Carolina defendant, “conspired with Officer Gay of Ohio” to deprive him of his extradition rights. J.A. 102, 110, 128. The district judge, after considering the magistrate judge‘s report and Young‘s objections, relied exclusively on Heck in dismissing Young‘s claims, holding that “those claims must await the vaсation or expungement” of the underlying judgment revoking probation. J.A. 133. In light of our determination that Heck does not bar Young from asserting a claim that his extradition rights were violated, we believe that Young‘s allegations should be reexamined by the district court. As part of that exercise, the court should consider whether Young‘s submissions containing added or amended allegations may be treated as a motion to amend.
C.
Finally, the South Carolina defendants argue that Young‘s claims were appropriately dismissed pursuant to Heck because they are “nothing more than a request for damages attributable to his conviction or imprisonment.” Br. of Appellees at 10. We agree that Young has made some allegations that are, according to Heck, assertable only in a habeas petition. See J.A. 5-6 (noting that he “suffer[s] with an (8) eight year sentence” because of the flawed extradition); J.A. 7 (requesting “[m]y freedom from which I have served a year“). However, as we have noted, Young also sеeks monetary damages against the South Carolina defendants stemming from his claim of procedural irregularities in his extradition that would not, if proven true, invalidate the criminal judgment revoking his probation. Again, a claim for damages (or certain declaratory relief) alleging that proper extradition procedures were not followed is cognizable under § 1983, and such a claim is not precluded by the prisoner‘s inclusion of claims that are barred by Heck.
Because Heck does not bar Young from invoking § 1983 tо assert a claim for damages against the South Carolina defendants for violating his extradition rights, we reverse the district court‘s dismissal order and remand the case for further proceedings. On remand the court may begin by considering whether Young‘s allegations are “frivolous, malicious, or fail[] to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”
REVERSED AND REMANDED