646
Opinion of the Court
wrong result (i. e., denying good-time credits). Nor is there any indication in the opinion, or any reason to believe, that using the wrong procedures necessarily vitiated the denial of good-time credits. Thus, the claim at issue in Wolff did not call into question the lawfulness of the plaintiff's continuing confinement." Heck, 512 U. S., at 482-483 (emphasis added and deleted).
The same point was apparent in Heck's summary of its holding:
"We hold that, in order to recover damages for allegedly unconstitutional conviction or imprisonment, or for other harm caused by actions whose unlawfulness would render a conviction or sentence invalid,6 a § 1983
plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence has been [overturned]." Id., at 486-487 (emphasis added).
The footnote appended to the above-italicized clause gave a concrete example of "a § 1983 action that does not seek damages directly attributable to conviction or confinement but whose successful prosecution would necessarily imply that the plaintiff's criminal conviction was wrongful." Id., at 486, n. 6. The Court of Appeals was thus incorrect in asserting that a claim seeking damages only "for using the wrong procedure, not for reaching the wrong result," Gotcher, supra, at 1099, would never be subject to the limitation announced in Heck.
The principal procedural defect complained of by respondent would, if established, necessarily imply the invalidity of the deprivation of his good-time credits. His claim is, first of all, that he was completely denied the opportunity to put on a defense through specifically identified witnesses who possessed exculpatory evidence. It appears that all witness testimony in his defense was excluded. See App. to Pet. for Cert. F-2 (District Court opinion) ("At the infraction hearing . . . , [respondent] asked that the witness statements be read into the record. According to [respondent], Edwards replied
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