Opinion ID: 6985070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The “in custody” requirement and related section 2255 concerns.

Text: As a preliminary matter, we note that Clark satisfies the jurisdictional “in custody” requirement for challenging the use of his prior state convictions to enhance his current federal sentence. Federal prisoners seeking relief under section 2255 must be “in custody under sentence of a court established by Act of Congress” at the time they file their motions. See United States v. Drobny, 955 F.2d 990, 995-96 (5th Cir.1992). A parallel custody requirement applies under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. 6 If the prisoner fails to satisfy the custody requirement, the court'will not have jurisdiction to hear the motion. See Carafas v. LaVallee, 391 U.S. 234, 88 S.Ct. 1556, 1559-60, 20 L.Ed.2d 554 (1968); Pleasant v. State, 134 F.3d 1256, 1257-58 (5th Cir.1998). In Maleng v. Cook, 490 U.S. 488, 109 S.Ct. 1923, 104 L.Ed.2d 540 (1989) (per curiam), the Supreme Court held that a section 2254 petitioner could not attack a prior completed state sentence because “once the sentence imposed for a conviction has completely expired, the collateral consequences of that conviction are not themselves sufficient to render an individual ‘in custody’ for the purposes of a habeas attack upon it.” Id. at 1926. Suffering “no present restraint” from his expired state conviction (even though it had been used to enhance his current sentences), Maleng did not satisfy the custody requirement for the prior conviction and therefore could not challenge it directly in a section 2254 proceeding. Id. If, as appears to be the case, Clark is no longer in state custody pursuant to or as a result of his 1983 state convictions, then there is no jurisdiction to challenge those convictions in a section 2254 proceeding. That Clark is still serving his federal sentence which was enhanced as a result of those 1988 state convictions does not provide the requisite custody for a section 2254 challenge to those convictions. See Pleasant, 134 F.3d at 1258. 7 Clark does, however, satisfy the “in custody” requirement of section 2255 by bringing a section 2255 challenge to the federal sentence he is presently serving on the grounds that it was erroneously enhanced by the allegedly invalid 1983 state convictions. ' The Maleng Court left open the question whether the use of a conviction the sentence for which had been fully served to enhance a sentence being currently served could be challenged in an attack on that current sentence. See id. at 1927 (“We express no view on the extent to which the [expired] 1958 conviction itself may be subject to challenge in the attack upon the [present] 1978 sentences which it was used to enhance.”). This Court and other Courts of Appeals have uniformly answered that question in the affirmative: as long as the habeas relief sought is framed as an attack on a present sentence, as to which the prisoner is still “in custody,” then the expired conviction used to enhance that sentence may be challenged. See Herbst v. Scott, 42 F.3d 902, 905 (5th Cir.1995) (“A habeas petitioner may attack a prior conviction used to enhance his punishment. ... The jurisdictional requirement of ‘in custody’ is satisfied by reading the petition as a challenge to the current conviction.”) (citations omitted); United States v. Nichols, 30 F.3d 35 (5th Cir.1994); Thompson v. Collins, 981 F.2d 259, 260 (5th Cir.1993); Allen v. Collins, 924 F.2d 88 (5th Cir.1991) (no distinction for this purpose between constitutionally “voidable” and “void” prior enhancing convictions); see also Young v. Vaughn, 83 F.3d 72, 75-76 (3d Cir.1996); Tredway v. Farley, 35 F.3d 288, 292 (7th Cir.1994); Brock v. Weston, 31 F.3d 887, 890 (9th Cir.1994); Collins v. Hesse, 957 F.2d 746, 748 (10th Cir.1992); Lottery v. United States, 956 F.2d 227, 229 (11th Cir.1992); Taylor v. Armontrout, 877 F.2d 726, 726-27 (8th Cir.1989) (per curiam); 28 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore’s Federal Practice § 671.04[3][b] [hereinafter Moore’s]. 8 Accordingly, we hold that Clark is “in custody” for the purpose of his section 2255 motion.' We note one other potential problem presented by the use of section 2255 to challenge a federal sentence being currently served on the ground that it was enhanced by a state conviction alleged to be unconstitutional, where state remedies have been exhausted and the state conviction has not been set aside, but the petitioner is no longer in custody under the state conviction so there is no jurisdiction to challenge it under section 2254. The problem in such a situation is that the state whose conviction is being challenged is not a party to the section 2255 proceeding. However, that should not be a basis for denying relief as to the federal sentence. In United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972), the Supreme Court sustained a section 2255 attack on a sentence imposed by a federal district court in California on the ground that the sentencing court had considered Florida and Louisiana convictions obtained in violation of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). We pointed out in Mitchell v. United States, 482 F.2d 289, 292-94 (5th Cir.1973), that it was evident in Tucker that the prior convictions had not been set aside, either by the courts of the respective state in which they were rendered or by any federal court. In Mitchell we similarly held section 2255 was an appropriate vehicle to challenge a federal sentence on the ground that the sentencing court considered prior state convictions obtained in violation of Gideon, notwithstanding that those convictions had not been set aside by the state courts or by any federal court. In Sammons v. Rodgers, 785 F.2d 1343 (5th Cir.1986), we held a federal prisoner could, in a section 2241 habeas petition brought against the warden of the federal institution where he was confined and the U.S. Parole Board, challenge on double jeopardy grounds the constitutionality of Tennessee convictions which adversely affected consideration of parole from his federal sentence. And, in Craig v. Beto, 458 F.2d 1131, 1133 (5th Cir.1972), we held that in a Texas prisoner’s section 2254 challenge to the Texas sentence he was serving that had been enhanced by a prior Oklahoma conviction, the prisoner could prove that the Oklahoma conviction was constitutionally invalid under Gideon. As Texas had enhanced its sentence on the basis of the Oklahoma conviction, it was proper for Texas to “bear” the “burden” of defending that conviction against the prisoner’s challenge. Id. at 1134; see also Marks v. Rees, 715 F.2d 372, 374-75 (7th Cir.1983) (Kentucky prisoner whose sentence was enhanced by prior Indiana conviction could challenge the constitutional validity of the Indiana conviction in a section 2254 attack on the Kentucky sentence). In Pleasant, we cited Craig and suggested that although a federal prisoner whose current sentence was enhanced under the ACCA as a result of an expired Texas conviction could not challenge the Texas conviction under section 2254 since he was not in Texas custody, he might be able to challenge it in a section 2255 petition directed to the ACCA sentence. See Pleasant, 134 F.3d at 1259. We observe that the apparent anomaly of determining the validity of one jurisdiction’s conviction later used for enhancement of another jurisdiction’s sentence, without a representative of the jurisdiction of the initial conviction being a party, is ameliorated by the rule that the determination does not bind the former jurisdiction. As we said in Craig, “our decision only relates to the use of [the Oklahoma] conviction in a Texas court” and “[o]ur action will leave standing the conviction in Oklahoma, so far as Oklahoma is concerned.” Id. at 1134.