Stanbridge v. Scott

• Decision Date: 29 June 2015
• Docket Number: Nos. 14–1548,14–2114.,s. 14–1548
• Citation: 791 F.3d 715
• Parties: Kevin W. STANBRIDGE, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Gregory SCOTT, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

791 F.3d 715

Kevin W. STANBRIDGE, Petitioner–Appellant

v.Gregory SCOTT, Respondent–Appellee.

Nos. 14–1548

14–2114.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 22, 2015.

Decided June 29, 2015.

Robert J. Palmer, Attorney, May, Oberfell & Lorber, Mishawaka, IN, for Petitioner–Appellant.

Erin O'Connell, Attorney, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent–Appellee.

Before FLAUM, MANION, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Kevin Stanbridge is currently confined in a secured facility pursuant to a commitment order under the Illinois Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, 725 Ill. Comp. Stat. 207/1 et seq., which allows for the civil commitment of individuals who have been convicted of a sexually violent offense and who suffer from a mental disorder that predisposes them to future acts of sexual violence. Stanbridge filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Central District of Illinois, where he is confined. His petition does not attack any aspect of his current confinement; rather, it challenges a 2005 criminal conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse. At the time the petition was filed, Stanbridge had already served his full sentence for his 2005 conviction. The district court, therefore, dismissed Stanbridge's petition, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction to consider claims related to Stanbridge's criminal conviction because he is no longer “in custody pursuant to [that] judgment.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a).

Stanbridge argues on appeal, as he did below, that he remains “in custody” pursuant to his sexual abuse conviction because that conviction serves as a necessary, though not sufficient, predicate for his current confinement. We conclude, however, that Stanbridge's civil commitment is merely a collateral consequence of his criminal conviction, and thus insufficient to render Stanbridge in custody pursuant to that conviction. We therefore affirm the district court's dismissal of the petition.

I. Background

In 1999, Kevin Stanbridge was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Illinois. See 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/1216(d) (1998). The charge stemmed from an incident with his friend's fourteen-year-old son, the details of which are not relevant to our analysis. Stanbridge was initially convicted in 2001, but that conviction was reversed by the Illinois Appellate Court. People v. Stanbridge, 348 Ill.App.3d 351, 284 Ill.Dec. 435, 810 N.E.2d 88 (2004). He was retried before a jury in April 2005 and found guilty. On May 3, Stanbridge was sentenced to seven years in prison, with credit for time served, to be followed by two years of mandatory supervised release. Stanbridge again appealed, but this time his conviction was upheld. People v. Stanbridge, No. 4–05–0585, 373 Ill.App.3d 1177, 348 Ill.Dec. 19, 943 N.E.2d 344 (Ill.App.Ct. July 14, 2007) (unpublished order).

In May 2005, while Stanbridge's criminal appeal was pending, the State filed a petition to have him civilly committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act. 725 Ill. Comp. Stat. 207/1 et seq. Under that Act, a person may be civilly committed if found to be a “sexually violent person,” meaning that he or she has been found guilty of a sexually violent offense and “is dangerous because he or she suffers from a mental disorder that makes it substantially probable that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence.” Id. 207/5(f). Stanbridge was served with the State's petition on May 5, 2005. On May 10, Stanbridge completed his term of incarceration. (Almost all of the term had been served before he was sentenced after retrial.) Rather than being released, however, he was transferred that day into the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services (“IDHS”), as a judge had concluded that there was probable cause to believe that he was a sexually violent person. See id. 207/30(c) (“If the court determines after a hearing that there is probable cause to believe that the person named in the petition is a sexually violent person, the court shall order that the person be taken into custody ... [and] transferred within a reasonable time to an appropriate facility....”). Stanbridge was confined to a secure IDHS facility for the duration of his two-year term of supervised release, which expired on May 10, 2007. At that point, Stanbridge's sentence for the aggravated assault conviction was completely discharged. Stanbridge, however, continued to be confined in an IDHS facility pursuant to the probable cause determination.

Stanbridge's civil commitment trial occurred in October 2007, after which a jury found him to be a sexually violent person.

In February 2008, Stanbridge was ordered committed to a secure facility for institutional care and treatment until such time that he is no longer a sexually violent person. His commitment was confirmed on direct appeal. In re Kevin S., No. 4–08–0163, 385 Ill.App.3d 1147, 361 Ill.Dec. 136, 970 N.E.2d 136 (Ill.App.Ct. Nov. 19, 2008) (unpublished order). Stanbridge remains in the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services.¹

In February 2012, Stanbridge filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In the petition, Stanbridge identified the 2005 conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse as the judgment of conviction that he was challenging. The petition raised seven claims pertaining to his criminal trial; the only claim that remains on appeal is Stanbridge's assertion that, during closing arguments, the prosecutor made multiple improper statements that violated Stanbridge's right to due process. Respondent Gregory Scott moved to dismiss the petition for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that Stanbridge was no longer in custody on his sexual abuse conviction. The district court agreed and dismissed the petition due to a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We granted Stanbridge a certificate of appealability, finding that “Stanbridge ha[d] made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right as to whether the prosecutor's closing arguments were improper.” Stanbridge v. Scott, No. 141548 (7th Cir. June 13, 2014). We instructed the parties to also address the issue of whether Stanbridge is in custody such that he may challenge his aggravated criminal sexual abuse conviction.

II. Discussion

We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a habeas petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Bhatt v. Reno, 204 F.3d 744, 746 (7th Cir.1999). Federal courts have jurisdiction over a habeas petition only if the petitioner is “in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) ; see also Maleng v. Cook, 490 U.S. 488, 490, 109 S.Ct. 1923, 104 L.Ed.2d 540 (1989) (holding that the custody requirement is jurisdictional). Importantly here, the petitioner must be “ ‘in custody’ under the conviction or sentence under attack at the time his petition is filed.” Id. at 490–91, 109 S.Ct. 1923 (emphasis added). As a general matter, if a petitioner “is no longer serving the sentences imposed pursuant to” the conviction challenged in a petition, he “cannot bring a federal habeas petition directed solely at” that conviction. Lackawanna Cnty. Dist. Attorney v. Coss, 532 U.S. 394, 401, 121 S.Ct. 1567, 149 L.Ed.2d 608 (2001).

In Maleng v. Cook, the Supreme Court held that a petitioner does not remain “ ‘in custody’ under a conviction after the sentence imposed for it has fully expired, merely because of the possibility that the prior conviction will be used to enhance the sentences imposed for any subsequent crimes of which he is convicted.” 490 U.S. at 492, 109 S.Ct. 1923. That is because a sentence enhancement is a collateral consequence of a prior conviction, and “once the sentence imposed for a conviction has completely expired, the collateral consequences of that conviction are not themselves sufficient to render an individual ‘in custody’ for the purposes of a habeas attack upon it.” Id. In the instant case, Stanbridge's sentence for his criminal conviction has completely expired. Furthermore, respondent argues, civil commitment under Illinois's Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act is much like the sentence enhancement at issue in Maleng: both require the existence of a prior criminal conviction, but both are collateral, as opposed to direct, consequences of that prior conviction.

Stanbridge argues that his current civil confinement is more than just a collateral consequence under the relevant definition of that term. He points to our opinion in Virsnieks v. Smith, 521 F.3d 707, 718 (7th Cir.2008), in which we referred to “the collateral consequences of a conviction” as “those consequences with negligible effects on a petitioner's physical liberty of movement.” Stanbridge's civil confinement, of course, is more than a negligible restraint on his physical liberty of movement; therefore, he argues, it is more than a collateral consequence.

We now clarify our earlier statement in Virsnieks, and hold that a habeas petitioner is not “in custody” pursuant to a particular conviction unless his physical liberty of movement is limited in a non-negligible way, and that limitation is a direct consequence of the challenged conviction. Though “[t]here is some disagreement among the courts over how to distinguish between direct and collateral consequences,” Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 364 n. 8, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010), in general, “[a] consequence is direct if it is imposed by the sentencing court as part of the authorized punishment, and included in the court's judgment.” User Guide Frequently Asked Questions, Nat'l Inventory of Collateral Consequences, http://www.abacollateralconsequences.org/user_guide/# q02 (last visited June 26, 2015). In contrast, a consequence is collateral “if it is not included in the court's judgment,” no matter whether the consequence “is imposed on a person automatically upon conviction” or serves as a necessary predicate for a subsequent determination...