Opinion of the Court
Reed’s began to run after a state trial court’s denial of a plaintiff’s motion for DNA testing (or even after the appeal before the plaintiff’s rehearing proceedings), the plaintiff would likely continue to pursue relief in the state system and simultaneously file a protective federal §1983 suit challenging that ongoing state process. That parallel litigation would “run counter to core principles of federalism, comity, consistency, and judicial economy.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 10). We see no good reason for such senseless duplication.
Moreover, significant systemic benefits ensue from starting the statute of limitations clock when the state litigation in DNA testing cases like Reed’s has concluded. If any due process flaws lurk in the DNA testing law, the state appellate process may cure those flaws, thereby rendering a federal §1983 suit unnecessary. And if the state appellate court construes the DNA testing statute, that construction will streamline and focus subsequent §1983 proceedings.
In sum, when a prisoner pursues state post-conviction DNA testing through the state-provided litigation process, the statute of limitations for a §1983 procedural due process claim begins to run when the state litigation ends. In Reed’s case, the statute of limitations began to run when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Reed’s motion for rehearing. Reed’s §1983 claim was timely.[1]
We reverse the judgment of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
- ↑ According to Reed, a plaintiff may forgo full appellate review in the state-court system and still bring a procedural due process suit challenging a State’s post-conviction DNA testing law. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 9–14. As this Court indicated in Osborne, it may be “difficult” as a practical matter “to criticize the State’s procedures when [the prisoner] has not invoked them.” 557 U. S., at 71. In any event, we need not address that hypothetical scenario.
