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Davis v. Lynch

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Oct 21, 2009
349 F. App'x 947 (5th Cir. 2009)

Opinion

No. 09-10150 Summary Calendar.

October 21, 2009.

Donald F. Davis, Navasota, TX, pro se.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, CLEMENT, and SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judges.


Donald Davis, an inmate, filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking monetary relief. Davis, while released on parole for a two year sentence, was arrested and charged with a new offense of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance. He was subsequently arraigned on a parole-violation warrant. Davis alleges that because of this he was unable to post bond and be released pending the resolution of the new controlled-substance charge. Davis filed a state writ of habeas corpus challenging the failure to timely provide a preliminary hearing. The state court granted relief by directing the Texas Department of Justice, Parole Division, to give him a preliminary hearing within 30 days.

Davis contends that the delay in providing him a hearing effectively extended his parole beyond the discharge date for his original conviction. The district court dismissed his suit on the grounds that he had not met the requirements established in Heck v. Humphrey. There the court stated that "in order to recover damages for allegedly unconstitutional conviction or imprisonment, or for other harm caused by actions whose unlawfulness would render a conviction or sentence invalid, a § 1983 plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence has been reversed on direct appeal, expunged by executive order, declared invalid by a state tribunal authorized to make such determination, or called into question by a federal court's issuance of a writ of habeas corpus." Here the state court's ruling did not invalidate the imprisonment. Davis has not therefore met the Heck prerequisite for his § 1983 claim.

Id. at 486-87, 114 S.Ct. 2364.

For the foregoing reasons, the district court's judgment is AFFIRMED.


Summaries of

Davis v. Lynch

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Oct 21, 2009
349 F. App'x 947 (5th Cir. 2009)
Case details for

Davis v. Lynch

Case Details

Full title:Donald DAVIS, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Jack LYNCH, et al.…

Court:United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

Date published: Oct 21, 2009

Citations

349 F. App'x 947 (5th Cir. 2009)

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