In re: Frederick J. Smith v.

349 F. App'x 12
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 24, 2009
Docket07-1220
StatusUnpublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 349 F. App'x 12 (In re: Frederick J. Smith v.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re: Frederick J. Smith v., 349 F. App'x 12 (6th Cir. 2009).

Opinions

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

In this § 1983 action, Petitioner Frederick J. Smith seeks an order directing state officials to produce for DNA testing the physical evidence collected in the investigation underlying his state criminal conviction. We hold that the district court lacked jurisdiction on the basis of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, and DISMISS this action.

I. Background

On March 9, 1984, Smith was found guilty by a jury of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The prosecution’s case consisted of the testimony of the complainant and the admission of blood-type evidence, which indicated that the assailant pos[13]*13sessed type B blood. Smith, an African-American man, possesses type B blood, as does twenty percent of the African-American population. The evidence was tested in 1984 through a procedure known as “electrophoresis analysis,” which is no longer used nor generally accepted by the scientific community.

Smith presented five alibi witnesses— four family members and a friend — who testified that Smith was in a different part of Detroit at or near the time of the offense. See People v. Smith, 149 Mich.App. 189, 385 N.W.2d 654, 656 (1986).

Smith was sentenced to two years in prison on the felony conviction, thirty to sixty years in prison for the sex offense, and ten to twenty years for armed robbery. His conviction was affirmed on appeal. See Smith, 385 N.W.2d at 655. The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal. See People v. Smith, No. 78173 (Mich. Sept. 28, 1986).

On November 29, 2001, Smith filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal district court. The district court dismissed the action based upon the one-year statute of limitations found in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). See Smith v. Jones, No. 01-CV-74504-DT, 2002 WL 31875516 (E.D.Mich. Nov. 26, 2002).

On August 30, 2005, Smith filed a petition for DNA testing in Wayne County Circuit Court pursuant to Mich. Comp. Laws § 770.16. The statute provides, in pertinent part:

(3) The court shall order DNA testing if the defendant does all of the following:
(a) Presents prima facie proof that the evidence sought to be tested is material to the issue of the convicted person’s identity as the perpetrator of ... the crime that resulted in the conviction.
(b) Establishes all of the following by clear and convincing evidence:
(i) A sample of identified biological material ... is available for DNA testing.
(ii) The identified biological material ... was not previously subjected to DNA testing or, if previously tested, will be subject to DNA testing technology that was not available when the defendant was convicted.
(iii) The identity of the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime was at issue during his or her trial.

Mich. Comp. Laws § 770.16(3) (2005) (amended 2006).

The state trial court denied Smith’s motion, holding that Smith “failed to present prima facie proof that the evidence sought to be tested is material to the issue of identification in this case.” People v. Smith, No. 83006566-01 (Order of the Court, dated Oct. 18, 2005). Smith did not appeal this decision.

Instead, on January 16, 2007, Smith sued Kym Worthy, Prosecuting Attorney of Wayne County, Michigan, and Judge Prentis Edwards, Judge of the Wayne County Circuit, in federal district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Smith alleged that his constitutional rights were violated by Defendants’ refusal to order DNA testing in his case and sought injunc-tive relief directing the state officials to conduct DNA testing.

The district court sua sponte deemed Smith’s action as a second or successive petition for habeas relief and transferred the matter to this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A) for authorization to file a second or successive habeas petition. We held the matter in abeyance pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Dist. Att’y’s Office for the Third Judicial Dist. v. Osborne, — U.S. —, 129 S.Ct. 2308, 174 L.Ed.2d 38 (2009), in which the Su[14]*14preme Court granted certiorari to consider the same issue raised by Smith.

The Supreme Court did not ultimately decide this question but simply assumed that a petitioner could raise this claim under § 1983 and reached the ultimate issue of “whether [a petitioner] has a right under the Due Process Clause to obtain postconviction access to the State’s evidence for DNA testing.” 129 S.Ct. at 2316, 2319. The majority held that a convicted prisoner does not have a freestanding constitutional right to DNA evidence. 129 S.Ct. at 2322. Rather, the majority held that, at most, a prisoner may have a procedural due process right to the proper application of a state-created right. Id. at 2319-20.

II. Analysis

As in every case, we must at the outset consider our jurisdiction over this appeal. Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 514, 126 S.Ct. 1235, 163 L.Ed.2d 1097 (2006). As noted above, Smith did not appeal the decision of the state trial court denying his motion for DNA testing. Thus, the question becomes whether this appeal is barred under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Under that doctrine, “lower federal courts are precluded from exercising appellate jurisdiction over final state-court judgments.” Marks v. Tennessee, 554 F.3d 619, 622 (6th Cir.2009) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). This is so “[b]eeause [28 U.S.C.] § 1257, as long interpreted, vests authority to review a state court’s judgment solely in [the Supreme] Court.” Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 292, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005). The Supreme Court recently explained that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine occupies “narrow ground,” namely, that it “is confined to cases of the kind from which the doctrine acquired its name: cases brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments rendered before the district court proceedings commenced and inviting district court review and rejection of those judgments.” Exxon, 544 U.S. at 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517. It does not bar “a district court from exercising subject-matter jurisdiction simply because a party attempts to litigate in federal court a matter previously litigated in state court.” Id. at 293, 125 S.Ct. 1517. “If a federal plaintiff presents some independent claim, albeit one that denies a legal conclusion that a state court has reached in a case to which he was a party, then there is jurisdiction,” and Rooker-Feldman does not apply. Id. (quotation omitted).

This Court “has interpreted that limitation to mean that the Rooker-Feldman

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349 F. App'x 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-frederick-j-smith-v-ca6-2009.