A man who had his attempted murder conviction vacated but then pleaded guilty to a lesser offense just to get out of prison can sue the state for civil rights violations without running afoul of U.S. Supreme Court case law, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday.
Sitting en banc, nine Second Circuit judges held in Poventud v. City of New York, 12-1011-cv, that Marcos Poventud’s lawsuit alleging that police withheld exculpatory evidence critical to his defense for the 1987 murder of a livery cab driver could proceed without violating the holding of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994).
