Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-89-03296/USCOURTS-ca10-89-03296-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Joe Anderson
Appellant
Joe Foster
Appellee
State of Kansas
Appellee

Document Text:

FI LED 

Unittd States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

MAY J 1990 

:ROBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk 

JOE ANDERSON, ) 

) 

Plaintiff-Appellant, ) 

) 

v. ) 

) 

STATE OF KANSAS and JOE FOSTER, ) 

) 

Defendants-Appellees. ) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

No. 89-3296 

(D.C. No. 89-3360-S) 

(D. Kansas) 

Before LOGAN, MOORE, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. 

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel 

has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially 

assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 

34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. 

submitted without oral argument. 

The cause is therefore ordered 

Joe Anderson, an inmate at the Kansas State Penitentiary, 

Lansing, Kansas, appeals the dismissal under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(d) 

of his civil rights action brought pursuant to 42 u.s.c. § 1983. 

In his complaint Mr. Anderson named the State of Kansas, a 

district attorney, a judge, and his former attorney, alleging 

unrelated misdeeds against the individuals, but no specific claim 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall 

not be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, 

except for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of 

the case, res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 

36.3. 

Appellate Case: 89-3296 Document: 01019969774 Date Filed: 05/03/1990 Page: 1 
against the State of Kansas. In the request for relief section of 

his complaint Mr. Anderson asks for a right to sue for false 

imprisonment, back pay (apparently, on a pension), immediate 

release from prison, and damages for pain, suffering and mental 

anguish. He also requests a visa and a right to travel abroad. 

The complaint was properly dismissed by the district court as 

lacking an arguable basis either in law or in fact. See Neitzke 

v. Williams, 109 S. Ct. 1827 (1989). The State of Kansas cannot 

be sued, the judge and prosecutor are absolutely immune from suit, 

and there is no allegation that Mr. Anderson's former lawyer was 

acting under color of state law so as to bring the allegations of 

the complaint within the civil rights statute. Furthermore, most 

of Mr. Anderson's complaint alleges improprieties in his state 

court trials (such as a claim that the prosecutor sat with the 

jury until they agreed to vote for conviction, and a claim that a 

lie detector test was improperly used), as a result of which he 

seeks release from prison. Such challenges may not be brought 

under the civil rights statute, but must be pursued by way of an 

application for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2241, and 

only after the applicant has exhausted the remedies available in 

the state courts. 28 u.s.c. § 2254(b). 

Mr. Anderson's motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis 

is denied, the filing fee is waived, and the appeal is dismissed. 

The mandate shall issue forthwith. 

ENTERED FOR THE COURT 

Stephen H. Anderson 

Circuit Judge 

-2-

Appellate Case: 89-3296 Document: 01019969774 Date Filed: 05/03/1990 Page: 2