United States Second Circuit

In civil rights action seeking access to DNA testing that plaintiff claims may exonerate him of his conviction, dismissal of claim is vacated as: 1) the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, relied on by the district court, does not apply to plaintiff's suit; 2) plaintiff's suit is not barred by the rule of Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475 (1973) and Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994); and 3) defendant waived any possible defense of claim preclusion, and it would be inappropriate for the court of appeals to raise the defense sua sponte.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/13/2007
• Published 03/13/2007

Judges

• CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:, Before: CALABRESI, KATZMANN and B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Janet Carter and Anne K. Small, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, New York, N.Y. (Paul A. Engelmayer and Christopher J. Meade, on the brief) (Larry W. Yackle, Boston University School of Law, Boston, MA, on the brief) (Daniel J. Meltzer, Cambridge, MA, of counsel), for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Drake A. Colley, Assistant Corporation Counsel, for Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, New York, N.Y. (Leonard Koerner and Edward F.X. Hart, of counsel), for Defendant-Appellee.