CA2: Heck bar doesn’t necessarily apply if plaintiff released from custody

The Heck bar to § 1983 relief doesn’t apply if the plaintiff loses his habeas remedy because of release without a decision on the merits. Here, he pled to a lesser, but that may not bar the claim. Poventud v. City of New York, 715 F.3d 57 (2d Cir. 2013):

Since Jenkins and Leather, we have repeatedly affirmed that Heck’s favorable-termination requirement applies only to plaintiffs who are in custody, and that all other claimants—those who have no remedy in habeas—may pursue their claims under § 1983. See McKithen v. Brown, 481 F.3d 89, 101 (2d Cir. 2007) (“Over time, [Heck’s] implicit exception [to § 1983’s otherwise broad coverage] has been carefully circumscribed.”); Huang ex rel. Yu v. Johnson, 251 F.3d 65, 75 (2d Cir. 2001) (“In light of our holding in Leather, and in light of … the fact that the Spencer concurrences and dissent ‘revealed that five justices hold the view that, where federal habeas corpus is not available to address constitutional wrongs, § 1983 must be,’ we conclude that Huang’s Section 1983 claim must be allowed to proceed.”) (quoting Jenkins, 179 F.3d at 26); Green v. Montgomery, 219 F.3d 52, 60 n.3 (2d Cir. 2000) (“We have held … that Heck acts only to bar § 1983 suits when the plaintiff has a habeas corpus remedy available to him (i.e., when he is in state custody). Because it does not appear that Green is presently in state custody, his § 1983 action is not barred by Heck.” (internal citations omitted)).

The facts in this case differ somewhat from the facts in the cases just cited, but not in a way that is material to the issue before us. After Poventud’s original conviction was vacated, but before that vacatur was affirmed on appeal, Poventud pled guilty to a lesser, related offense.2 This fact, however, does not alter the underlying principle that a claimant who cannot seek relief under habeas must be able to seek it under § 1983. Poventud’s guilty plea may (or may not) supply defendants with a defense that no § 1983 violation occurred. But it does not entitle them to summary judgment under Heck.