Merle W. Unger, Jr. v. Michael W. Moore

Appellant, a state prisoner, appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Appellees are officials of the state of Florida. The district court ruled that Appellant was not “in custody” as required by § 2254. As such, the district court held it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253, we granted a certificate of appeal-ability solely on the issue whether the district court correctly determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1976, Appellant was convicted by the courts of…