Jerome Watts v. Green Bay Correctional Institution

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin grants Jerome Watts leave to proceed in forma pauperis but dismisses his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition without prejudice. The court holds that Watts’s allegations concerning denial of seizure medication seek relief unavailable through habeas corpus and should instead be pursued in a civil action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; the court also denies a certificate of appealability.

Holdings

1. A § 2254 habeas petition is appropriate when a petitioner claims that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution; claims alleging constitutional violations occurring during imprisonment, including claims seeking damages or injunctive relief concerning prison conditions, must instead be brought as a civil action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
2. Watts was permitted to proceed in forma pauperis because he represented under penalty of perjury that he had no assets.
3. A certificate of appealability was denied because no reasonable jurist could debate whether Watts's claim was a properly characterized habeas petition.

Questions Presented

1. Whether allegations that prison officials violated Watts's constitutional rights during his imprisonment, coupled with requests for monetary damages and injunctive relief, are properly brought in a § 2254 habeas petition.
2. Whether Watts was entitled to proceed in forma pauperis.
3. Whether Watts was entitled to a certificate of appealability.

Disposition

dismissed