Martin v. U.S.

Decision Date04 September 1996
Docket Number96-2568 and 96-8027,Nos. 96-2011,96-2267,96-2541,s. 96-2011
PartiesLarry A. MARTIN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee. Victor FERNANDEZ, also known as Marce, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee. Thaddeus WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Douglas HIGGINS, et al., Defendants-Appellees. Joseph E. TAYLOR, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Craig A. HANKS, Respondent-Appellee. In re Adam R. HOUSER, Petitioner.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Larry A. Martin (submitted), pro se.

Barry Rand Elden, Chief of Appeals, Office of the United States Attorney, Criminal Appellate Division, Chicago, IL for Respondent-Appellee in Nos. 96-2011, 96-2267.

Victor Fernandez (submitted), pro se.

Thaddeus Williams (submitted), pro se.

Rita M. Novak, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Joseph E. Taylor (submitted), pro se.

Pamela Carter, Office of the Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, for Respondent-Appellee in No. 96-2568.

Adam R. Houser (submitted), pro se.

Gerald A. Coraz, Office of the United States Attorney, Indianapolis, IN, for Respondent.

Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and BAUER and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges.

POSNER, Chief Judge.

We have consolidated for consideration and decision five cases presenting four questions of interpretation under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996, Pub.L. 104-134, Title VIII, 110 Stat. 1321, and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub.L. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, both enacted this past April.

1. The first question (presented by No. 96-8027) is whether a petition for mandamus is within the scope of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which imposes new requirements on prison inmates desiring to sue in federal court. We do not think that the question can be answered in gross. When as is normally the case in the federal courts mandamus is being sought against the judge presiding in the petitioner's case, it is realistically a form of interlocutory appeal, and whether an interlocutory appeal is within the scope of the new Act should turn on whether the litigation in which it is being filed is within that scope. It is if it is civil litigation, and the petition for mandamus filed in such a litigation must therefore comply with the Act. In re Nagy, 89 F.3d 115, 116-17 (2d Cir.1996); Green v. Nottingham, 90 F.3d 415, 417-18 (10th Cir.1996). It is not if it is criminal litigation; in such a case the petition for mandamus need not comply. In re Nagy, supra, 89 F.3d at 117.

A petition for mandamus in a criminal proceeding is not a form of prisoner litigation. The defendant filing the writ might not even be a prisoner; he might be out on bail. It is not a "civil action," the operative language of the new 28 U.S.C. § 1915(b)(1). It is a procedural step in the criminal litigation, like an interlocutory or final appeal or a civil contempt proceeding against a witness. The section we just quoted does speak of "a civil action or ... an appeal," but in context it is apparent that the word "appeal" means the appeal in a civil action. A different conclusion would create the anomaly that a prisoner who had brought three or more groundless civil suits while incarcerated could not seek mandamus in a criminal action against him without prepaying the docket fee, 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g)--not something that Congress is likely to have intended in seeking to lessen the flow of groundless prisoner civil rights litigation. Cf. Green v. Nottingham, supra, 90 F.3d at 418.

2. The next question (presented by No. 96-2011), and the most difficult, is whether Fed. R.App. P. 4(c) affects the applicability of the provision of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act that requires a prisoner wanting to appeal from a denial of federal habeas corpus (or from a denial of parallel relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255) to obtain a certificate of appealability. Under Rule 4(c), which codifies Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 108 S.Ct. 2379, 101 L.Ed.2d 245 (1988), a prisoner's notice of appeal is timely if by the deadline for filing the appeal the notice was handed to prison officials for mailing, even though the notice was not received by the district court until after the deadline expired. We must decide whether, if the notice of appeal was handed to the prison officials before the date of enactment of the antiterrorism statute, but was not received by the district court until after that date, the prisoner must obtain a certificate of appealability. The answer depends on whether the appeal is deemed filed when the prisoner hands the notice of appeal to the prison officials for filing, or is merely not untimely if the notice was handed to them by the deadline. If the former, then an appeal would be deemed to have been filed before the effective date of the new statute if the notice of appeal had been handed to them before, even though the notice was not sent until after that date. A certificate of appealability is not required for an appeal perfected before the effective date of the new statute. The requirement, though procedural, would attach a new legal consequence to a completed act and is therefore not to be imposed retroactively in the absence of a clear statement of congressional intent to do so. Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, ----, ---- n. 29, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 1499, 1502 n. 29, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994); Reyes-Hernandez v. INS, 89 F.3d 490, 492 (7th Cir.1996).

All previous applications of Rule 4(c) have been in situations in which it was used to save an appeal from being dismissed as untimely. And it seems unlikely that the Congress that enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act would have wanted the rule used not to save an appeal but merely to give the appellant the benefit of a more favorable procedure, the procedure for taking appeals that existed before the enactment of the Act. Congress did not, however, alter Rule 4(c), which begins: "In a civil case in which the first notice of appeal is filed in the manner provided in this subdivision (c)." The manner provided is the handing of the notice to the prison officials for filing. The language we have quoted describes this handing as the filing of the notice of appeal. And this means that the appellant appealed before the effective date of the new Act and therefore is not required to obtain a...

To continue reading

Request your trial
143 cases
  • Blair-Bey v. Quick
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit
    • July 24, 1998
    ...distinct from their access to tort remedies." Anderson v. Singletary, 111 F.3d 801, 805 (11th Cir.1997) (quoting Martin v. United States, 96 F.3d 853, 855-56 (7th Cir.1996)); see also O'Neal, 513 U.S. at 432, 440, 115 S.Ct. 992 (1995) (observing that the stakes in habeas proceedings are hig......
  • U.S. v. Simmonds, 96-3287
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit
    • April 14, 1997
    ...§ 2255 proceedings are not "civil actions" for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1915); Santana, 98 F.3d at 754-55 (same); Martin v. United States, 96 F.3d 853, 855 (7th Cir.1996) (neither habeas nor 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings are "civil actions" for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1915); Reyes v. Keane, 9......
  • Cooper v. Garcia
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
    • May 27, 1999
    ...[under 28 U.S.C. § 2254] and prisoner civil rights relief [under 42 U.S.C. § 1983] are analytically very different." Martin v. United States, 96 F.3d 853, 855 (7th Cir.1996); see also Naddi v. Hill, 106 F.3d 275, 277 (9th Cir.1997) (finding that the PLRA's filing fee provisions are inapplic......
  • O'Brien v. Moore, 04-6473.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit
    • January 27, 2005
    ...1130 (4th Cir.1997) (noting that a habeas proceeding is "`more accurately regarded as being sui generis'" (quoting Martin v. United States, 96 F.3d 853, 855 (7th Cir.1996))). And because habeas actions have both a criminal and civil nature, when statutory provision regulates a "civil action......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT