Opinion ID: 145260
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Gall adequately alleges injury.

Text: The Commonwealth further argues that Gall has not pled with sufficient particularity that he is suffering any injury from the conviction's remaining on his record. Ongoing or future harm is a prerequisite for the existence of a case or controversy, a necessary requirement for the continued existence of federal habeas jurisdiction. Gentry, 456 F.3d at 693 (describing the evolution of the case or controversy requirement in habeas cases). Because Gall maintains that the conviction will affect his proceedings before the Ohio parole board, and because that hearing will not occur until at least the year 2021, the Commonwealth claims that he is not currently suffering any injury in fact. In this regard, the Commonwealth does not seem to dispute that the conviction will be relevant to the decision of the Ohio parole board and, instead, seems to argue simply that the alleged injury is too far in the future to give rise to the injury necessary to establish a case or controversy. This argument misunderstands the nature of the collateral consequences flowing from an unconstitutional felony conviction and elevates form over function. First, we summarily found in Gall IV that Gall continued to suffer from collateral consequences in 2003 even though he had already been transferred to Ohio. Gall IV, 69 Fed.Appx. at 253. Though we did not state explicitly what those collateral consequences were, we nevertheless found that they were present. Additionally, our decision in Gall IV necessarily did not alleviate those collateral consequences because we denied Gall any relief. As nothing has changed since our 2003 opinion, it would seem to follow that the collateral consequences still exist. Even if we had not already decided the collateral consequences issue in Gall IV, we held in Gentry that collateral consequences are essentially presumed simply by virtue of the unconstitutional conviction's continued existence. Gentry, 456 F.3d at 694-95. Thus, once a habeas petitioner provides the minimal showing of the existence of collateral consequences that we found to be required in Gentry, it becomes the state's burden to show conclusively that collateral consequences do not exist in a case of an unconstitutional conviction remaining on one's record. This makes perfect sense when viewed in contexta felony conviction is a scarlet letter placed upon an individual by the state that carries with it consequences that we have described as legion and patently obvious. Id. at 694. Though it seems settled that the mere presence of the conviction is not, in and of itself, sufficient injury to give rise to a case or controversy, it is equally settled by Gentry that a petitioner need not show much more than the possibility of tangible collateral consequences for the burden to shift to the state to show that the consequences are not in fact possible. See also Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998) (In recent decades, we have been willing to presume that a wrongful criminal conviction has continuing collateral consequences (or, what is effectively the same, to count collateral consequences that are remote and unlikely to occur).). In this case, the Commonwealth has not proven to our satisfaction that the 1987 conviction will have no possible effect on the Ohio parole board's consideration. [8] Indeed, in its brief on appeal, the Commonwealth admits that, although it doubts that the 1987 conviction will impact the parole hearing due to the presence of other felony convictions, it is impossible to know how this prior conviction will be handled until Gall comes up for parole. (Appellant's Br. at 16.) Furthermore, despite its expressed doubt as to the presence of collateral consequences, we note that the Commonwealth has mounted a vigorous defense over an issue that it would have us believe is meaningless. We are satisfied of the continued existence of collateral consequences sufficient to give rise to a case or controversy. We also disagree with the notion implied in the Commonwealth's argument that Gall should simply wait until the day of his parole hearing gets closer to bring this challenge. As stated above, the Commonwealth has not shown that the conviction will be completely irrelevant to his parole hearing. We can find no compelling reason to delay addressing what will be an issue at some point, and we find it particularly ironic that the Commonwealth argues here that Gall should wait when, as we will see, the Commonwealth argues later that Gall has waited too long.