Lackawanna County District Attorney v. Coss, 532 U.S. 394, 8 (2001)

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Cite as: 532 U. S. 394 (2001)

Opinion of the Court

in Coss' favor: whether § 2254 provides a remedy where a current sentence was enhanced on the basis of an allegedly unconstitutional prior conviction for which the sentence has fully expired. 531 U. S. 923 (2000).

II

A

The first showing a § 2254 petitioner must make is that he is "in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court." 28 U. S. C. § 2254(a). In Maleng v. Cook, supra, we considered a situation quite similar to the one presented here. In that case, the respondent had filed a § 2254 petition listing as the " 'conviction under attack' " a 1958 state conviction for which he had already served the entirety of his sentence. 490 U. S., at 489-490. He also alleged that the 1958 conviction had been "used illegally to enhance his 1978 state sentences" which he had not yet begun to serve because he was at that time in federal custody on an unrelated matter. Ibid. We determined that the respondent was "in custody" on his 1978 sentences because the State had lodged a detainer against him with the federal authorities. Id., at 493.

We held that the respondent was not "in custody" on his 1958 conviction merely because that conviction had been used to enhance a subsequent sentence. Id., at 492. We acknowledged, however, that because his § 2254 petition "[could] be read as asserting a challenge to the 1978 sentences, as enhanced by the allegedly invalid prior conviction, . . . respondent . . . satisfied the 'in custody' requirement for federal habeas jurisdiction." Id., at 493-494.

Similarly, Coss is no longer serving the sentences imposed pursuant to his 1986 convictions, and therefore cannot bring a federal habeas petition directed solely at those convictions. Coss is, however, currently serving the sentence for his 1990 conviction. Like the respondent in Maleng, Coss' § 2254 petition can be (and has been) construed as "asserting a challenge to the [1990] senten[ce], as enhanced by the alleg-

401

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