Petition of the day

Issue: (1) Whether a convicted prisoner can bring a § 1983 damages claim for deprivation of liberty – based on state DNA evidence-access procedures not mandated by the Constitution – when the same prisoner would have no due process right to habeas or actual release from prison due to alleged negligence in storing evidence; and (2) whether a municipality may be held liable under Monell v. Department of Social Services for negligent actions of line-level municipal employees in misfiling information necessary for the tracking and retrieval of evidence from a concluded criminal prosecution that would later prove exculpatory.