Opinion ID: 6985070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exhaustion and prior resort to section 2254 if “in custody”

Text: We recognize that in neither Craig nor Mitchell did we require a defendant attacking a sentence enhanced by an allegedly constitutionally infirm prior conviction either to exhaust his remedies in courts of the state imposing the prior conviction or to exhaust his section 2254 remedies in a proceeding directly challenging the prior conviction. However, in both of those cases the infirmity in the prior convictions was a Gideon error, and under Custis that is a challenge which can be raised at the sentencing for the later offense. We do not here deal with prior convictions which are invalid under Gideon. Moreover, since Craig and Mitchell there has been a virtual sea charge in overall habeas jurisprudence and Custis itself clearly indicates a preference for initial resort to available state remedies, and to section 2254 where the defendant meets its “in custody” requirement as to the prior conviction, before returning to the federal court which imposed the ACCA sentence in a section 2255 proceeding.