By: Derek Hawkins//April 4, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Benyehudah Whitfield II v. Erika R. Howard, et al
Case No.: 15-2649
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and MANION, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Postponed Release
Benyehudah Whitfield spent nearly 17 years in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. He contends that he would have been released earlier had it not been for the retaliatory revocation of good-time credits; he lost those credits in three prison disciplinary proceedings. Whitfield filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit after his release in 2011, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated by his improperly postponed release. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, reasoning that Whitfield’s claims were barred by Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641 (1997), and Burd v. Sessler, 702 F.3d 429 (7th Cir. 2012). We conclude, to the contrary, that those cases do not bar his action, and so we reverse and remand for further proceedings
Reversed and remanded