Seventh Circuit Nixes Death Row Inmate's 'Brain Scan' Transport Order

A Seventh Circuit panel on Tuesday reversed a district court's order granting a death row inmate transportation for brain scans, ruling the testing lacked sufficient nexus to his equitable tolling claim and ran afoul of Supreme Court precedent that bars prisoners from 'fishing for unusable evidence.'

William Clyde Gibson III, who received two death sentences for separate murders in Indiana, filed his federal habeas petition two years late and sought equitable tolling based on attorney abandonment and mental health issues. Gibson requested transportation to an Indianapolis hospital for MRI and PET brain scans, arguing his 'untreated mental health conditions left him unable to manage his legal affairs' around the filing deadline. The district court granted both an evidentiary hearing on equitable tolling and the transportation order under the All Writs Act.

Circuit Judge Jennifer Scudder wrote that the transportation order was 'substantially, if not irreconcilably, in tension' with the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Shoop v. Twyford, which requires prisoners to show that desired evidence would be admissible in connection with a particular claim for relief. 'Gibson remains unable to tie with sufficient particularity—with the directness demanded by the Supreme Court in Twyford—the etiology-focused brain scan testing to his claim of abandonment for purposes of equitable tolling,' Scudder wrote. The court noted that Gibson never explained how the specific testing would contribute to his equitable tolling request despite being pressed on the point during oral argument.

Gibson had until February 2021 to file his federal habeas petition after exhausting state remedies, but counsel Kenneth Murray and Michael Benza were appointed in 2020 with nearly eight months remaining. After filing a premature motion for equitable tolling that was denied, the deadline passed without any filing. Murray withdrew for health reasons in August 2022, followed by Benza, and new counsel Oliver Loewy finally filed the petition in February 2023. Indiana moved to dismiss as untimely, prompting Gibson's equitable tolling arguments.

The Seventh Circuit emphasized its ruling was narrow and limited to vacating the transportation order, noting Gibson has 'amassed considerable evidence' for his equitable tolling claim including attorney abandonment allegations. The court left the evidentiary hearing to proceed in district court, writing it would not 'put a thumb on one side or the other of the forthcoming proceedings.' The decision underscores the Supreme Court's restrictions on using the All Writs Act for evidence-gathering in habeas cases, particularly where prisoners cannot demonstrate clear relevance to specific legal claims.