The following excerpt is from Manter v. Fresno Police Dep't, Case No. 1:19-cv-01070-DAD-EPG (E.D. Cal. 2019):
To bring a civil action for damages for violation of the Sixth Amendment, a plaintiff must first allege facts demonstrating that he was subjected to a criminal prosecution and that either the prosecution terminated in his favor or his conviction has been overturned. See Heck v. Humphrey,
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512 U.S. 477, 486-87 (1994) (To recover damages for "harm caused by actions whose unlawfulness would render a conviction or sentence invalid," a 1983 plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence was reversed, expunged, or otherwise invalidated.); Valdez v. Rosenbaum, 302 F.3d 1039, 1049 (9th Cir. 2002) (Sixth Amendment claim not cognizable in civil rights action because the claim would necessarily imply the invalidity of the plaintiff's conviction; Sixth Amendment claim must instead be asserted in a petition for writ of habeas corpus).
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