U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2011

Nathan Turner v. Bonnie Dumanis

Nathan Turner v. Bonnie Dumanis
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Decided February 24, 2011 · Canby, Fernandez, Smith
415 F. App'x 831

Nathan Turner v. Bonnie Dumanis

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Nathan Kevin Turner, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging denial of post-conviction access to biological evidence for DNA testing. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo, Nelson v. Heiss, 271 F.3d 891, 893 (9th Cir. 2001), and we affirm.

The district court properly dismissed Turner’s claims that he was denied post-conviction access to biological evidence for DNA testing because he has not stated a viable due process claim. See Dist. Attorney’s Office for Third Judicial Dist. v. Osborne, — U.S.-, 129 S.Ct. 2308, 2320-23, 174 L.Ed.2d 38 (2009) (holding that plaintiff had no viable procedural due process claim because state’s procedures for post-conviction relief did not transgress recognized principles of fundamental fairness, and that there was no substantive due process right to post-conviction access to DNA evidence).

The district court properly dismissed Turner’s claims that defendants destroyed materially exculpatory evidence in bad faith because Turner’s conviction has *833 not been invalidated. See Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 486-87, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994) (holding that a constitutional claim that necessarily implies the invalidity of a conviction cannot be brought under § 1983 unless the conviction has already been invalidated).

Turner’s remaining contentions are unpersuasive.

AFFIRMED.

**

This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9 th Cir. R. 36-3.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.