By: Derek Hawkins//October 18, 2021//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Marvin L. Carter v. Chris S. Buesgen
Case No.: 20-3140
Officials: EASTERBROOK, BRENNAN, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Appellate Jurisdiction
Wisconsin inmate Marvin Carter has waited four years and counting to challenge his 2017 sentence on direct appeal in state court. Over these four years Carter has weathered a ten-month transcript delay, three different public defenders, and fourteen extension requests by counsel and the trial court itself. At no point during these four years has a single court in Wisconsin ruled on the merits of Carter’s colorable challenge to his sentence. None of this is Carter’s fault.
Carter responded to the delay by seeking relief in federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Although recognizing the inordinate delay Carter has endured in Wisconsin, the district court concluded that Carter had failed to exhaust his state court remedies and dismissed his petition without prejudice. At the very least, the district court added, Carter needed to lodge one final plea for relief with the state court before returning to federal court.
Carter appeals from that dismissal. We confront two issues: whether we have appellate jurisdiction to review the district court’s dismissal order and, if so, whether the delay experienced by Carter excuses him from the otherwise applicable statutory exhaustion requirement. We answer both questions in the affirmative, for what Carter has experienced—and, by every indication, will continue to experience—in the Wisconsin trial and appellate courts is extreme and tragic. The intractable delay shows that Wisconsin’s appellate process, at least as far as Carter is concerned, is ineffective to protect rights secured by the United States Constitution. So we reverse and remand to allow the district court to rule on the merits of Carter’s § 2254 petition without delay.
Reversed and remanded