Nance v. Ward

NANCE v. WARD, COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al.

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for

the eleventh circuit No. 21–439. Argued April 25, 2022—Decided June 23, 2022 A prisoner who challenges a State's proposed method of execution under the Eighth Amendment must identify a readily available alternative method that would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain. If the prisoner proposes a method already authorized under state law, the Court has held that his claim can go forward under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, rather than in habeas. See Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U. S. 637, 644– 647. But the prisoner is not confined to proposing a method already authorized under state law; he may ask for a method used in other States. See Bucklew v. Precythe, 587 U. S. –––, –––. The question presented is whether a prisoner who does so may still proceed under § 1983. Petitioner Michael Nance brought suit under § 1983 to enjoin Georgia from using lethal injection to carry out his execution. Lethal injection is the only method of execution that Georgia law now authorizes. Nance alleges that applying that method to him would create a substantial risk of severe pain. As an alternative to lethal injection, Nance proposes death by firing squad—a method currently approved by four other States. The District Court dismissed Nance's § 1983 suit as untimely. The Eleventh Circuit rejected it for a different reason: that Nance should have advanced his method-of-execution claim by way of a habeas petition rather than a § 1983 suit. A habeas petition, that court stated, is appropriate when a prisoner seeks to invalidate his death sentence. And the Eleventh Circuit thought that was what Nance was doing. It asserted that Georgia law—which again, only authorizes execution by lethal injection—had to be taken as “fixed.” 981 F. 3d 1201, 1211. Under that “fixed” law, the court said, enjoining Georgia from executing Nance by lethal injection would mean that he could not be executed at all. The court therefore “reconstrued” Nance's § 1983 complaint as a habeas petition. Id., at 1203. Having done so, the court then dismissed Nance's petition as “second or successive,” because he had previously sought federal habeas relief. 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b). Held: Section 1983 remains an appropriate vehicle for a prisoner's method-of-execution claim where, as here, the prisoner proposes an alternative method not authorized by the State's death-penalty statute.

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Both § 1983 and the federal habeas statute enable a prisoner to complain of “unconstitutional treatment at the hands of state officials.” Heck v. Humphrey , 512 U. S. 477, 480. A prisoner may generally sue under § 1983, unless his claim falls into that statute's “implicit exception” for actions that lie “within the core of habeas corpus.” Wilkinson v. Dotson, 544 U. S. 74, 79. When a prisoner seeks relief that would “necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence,” he comes within the core and must proceed in habeas. Heck, 512 U. S., at 487. The Court has twice held that prisoners could bring method-of -execution claims under § 1983. See Nelson, 541 U. S., at 644–647; Hill v. McDonough, 547 U. S. 573, 580–583. Although these cases predated the Court's requirement that prisoners identify alternative methods of execution, each prisoner had still said enough to leave the Court convinced that alternatives to the challenged procedures were available. See Nelson, 541 U. S., at 646; Hill, 547 U. S., at 580–581. Because alternatives were available, the prisoners' challenges would not “necessarily prevent [the State] from carrying out [their] execution[s].” Nelson, 541 U. S., at 647 (emphasis in original); see Hill, 547 U. S., at 583. That made § 1983 a proper vehicle. In Nelson and Hill, the Court observed that using a different method required only a change in an agency's uncodified protocol. Here, Georgia would have to change its statute to carry out Nance's execution by firing squad. Except for that fact, this case would even more clearly than Nelson and Hill be ft for § 1983. Since those cases, the Court has required a prisoner bringing a method-of-execution claim to propose an alternative way of carrying out his death sentence. Thus, an order granting the prisoner relief does not, as required for habeas, “necessarily prevent” the State from implementing the execution. Nelson, 541 U. S., at 647 (emphasis in original). Rather, the order gives the State a pathway forward. That remains true even where, as here, the proposed alternative is one unauthorized by present state law. Nance's requested relief still places his execution in Georgia's control. If Georgia wants to carry out the death sentence, it can enact legislation approving what a court has found to be a fairly easy-to-employ method of execution. Although that may take more time and effort than changing an agency protocol, Hill explained that the “incidental delay” involved in changing a procedure is irrelevant to the vehicle question—which focuses on whether the requested relief would “necessarily” invalidate the death sentence. 547 U. S., at 583. And anyway, Georgia has given no reason to think that passing new legislation would be a substantial impediment. The Court of Appeals could reach the contrary conclusion only by wrongly treating Georgia's statute as immutable. In its view, granting

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Nance relief would necessarily imply the invalidity of his death sentence because Georgia law must be taken as “fixed.” 981 F. 3d, at 1211. But one of the “main aims” of § 1983 is to “override”—and thus compel change of—state laws when necessary to vindicate federal constitutional rights. Monroe v. Pape , 365 U. S. 167, 173. Indeed, courts not uncommonly entertain prisoner suits under § 1983 that may, if successful, require changing state law.

Under the contrary approach, the federal vehicle for bringing a federal method-of-execution claim would depend on the vagaries of state law. Consider how Nance's claim would fare in different States. In Georgia (and any other State with lethal injection as the sole authorized method), he would have to bring his claim in a habeas petition. But in States authorizing other methods when a court holds injection unlawful, he could file a § 1983 suit. It would be strange to read state-by-state discrepancies into the Court's understanding of how § 1983 and the habeas statute apply to federal constitutional claims. That is especially so because the use of the vehicles can lead to different outcomes: An inmate in one State could end up getting his requested relief, while an inmate in another might have his case thrown out. The approach of the Court of Appeals raises one last problem: It threatens to undo the commitment this Court made in Bucklew . The Court there told prisoners they could identify an alternative method not “presently authorized” by the executing State's law. 587 U. S., at –––. But under the approach of the Court of Appeals, a prisoner who presents an out-of-state alternative is relegated to habeas—and once there, he will almost inevitably collide with the second-or-successive bar. That result, precluding claims like Nance's, would turn Bucklew into a sham. Finally, recognizing that § 1983 is a good vehicle for a claim like Nance's does not countenance “last-minute” claims to forestall an execution. Id., at –––. Courts must consider delay in deciding whether to grant a stay of execution, and outside the stay context, courts have tools to streamline § 1983 actions and protect a sentence's timely enforcement. Pp. 167–175. 981 F. 3d 1201, reversed and remanded. Kagan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Breyer , Sotomayor , and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined. Barrett, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, Alito , and Gorsuch, JJ., joined, post, p. 175.

Matthew S. Hellman argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Laurie Webb Daniel, Matthew Page Proof Pending Publication

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Masha G. Hansford argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae supporting petitioner. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Prelogar, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Boynton, Deputy Solicitor General Feigin, and Michael S. Raab.

Stephen J. Petrany, Solicitor General of Georgia, argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Ross W. Bergethon and Drew F. Waldbeser, Deputy Solicitors General, Beth A. Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Sabrina D. Graham, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Clint C. Malcom, Assistant Attorney General.*

Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court.

In several recent decisions, this Court has set out rules for challenging a State's proposed method of execution under the Eighth Amendment. To prevail on such a claim, a prisoner must identify a readily available alternative method of

This case concerns the procedural vehicle appropriate for a prisoner's method-of-execution claim. We have held that such a claim can go forward under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, rather than in habeas, when the alternative method proposed is already authorized under state law. See Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U. S. 637, 644–647 (2004). Here, the prisoner has identi-fed an alternative method that is not so authorized. The question presented is whether § 1983 is still a proper vehicle. We hold that it is.

A

States choosing to impose capital punishment have over time sought out “more humane way[s] to carry out death sentences.” Glossip v. Gross, 576 U. S. 863, 868 (2015). In the 27 States with the death penalty, lethal injection is by far the most common method of execution. See ibid. Fifteen States, including Georgia, authorize only the use of lethal injection.1 Nine States authorize lethal injection plus one or more other specified methods; of those (to use an example relevant here), four approve the firing squad. 2 And three

A death row inmate may attempt to show that a State's planned method of execution, either on its face or as applied to him, violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on “cruel and unusual” punishment. To succeed on that claim, the Court held in Glossip, he must satisfy two requirements. First, he must establish that the State's method of execution presents a “substantial risk of serious harm”—severe pain over and above death itself. Id., at 877. Second, and more relevant here, he “must identify an alternative [method] that is feasible, readily implemented, and in fact significantly reduce[s]” the risk of harm involved. Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). Only through a “comparative exercise,” we have explained, can a judge “decide whether the State has cruelly `superadded' pain to the punishment of death.” Bucklew , 587 U. S., at –––.

In identifying an alternative method, the Court in Buck-lew held, an inmate is “not limited to choosing among those presently authorized by a particular State's law.” Id., at –––. The prisoner may, for example, “point to a well-established protocol in another State as a potentially viable option.” Ibid. The Eighth Amendment, Bucklew explained, “is the supreme law of the land, and the comparative assessment it requires can't be controlled by the State's choice of which methods to authorize.” Id., at –––; see Arthur v. Dunn, 580 U. S. 1141, 1147–1149 (2017) (Sotomayor ,

3–530 (2021 Cum. Supp.); Utah Code § 77–18–113 (2021). The rest of the States in this bucket most commonly authorize electrocution or lethal gas. See Ark. Code Ann. §§ 5–4–617(a), (l) (Supp. 2021); Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 3604(a) (West Supp. 2022); Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 431.220(1)(a), 431.223 (Lexis 2021); Mo. Rev. Stat. § 546.720(1) (2016); Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 7–13– 904 (2021). 3 Ala. Code § 15–18–82.1(c) (2018); Fla. Stat. § 922.105(3) (2018); Tenn. Code Ann. § 40–23–114(d) (2018). Page Proof Pending Publication

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B

While trying to fee a bank robbery, petitioner Michael Nance shot and killed a bystander. A Georgia jury convicted Nance of murder, and the trial court sentenced him to death. Nance challenged his conviction and sentence— first on direct appeal, next in state collateral proceedings, and finally in federal habeas—but without success.

Nance later brought suit under § 1983 to enjoin Georgia from using lethal injection to carry out his death sentence. As stated above, lethal injection is the only method of execution Georgia law now authorizes. See supra, at 163.4 In his complaint, Nance alleges that applying that method to him would create a substantial risk of severe pain. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 86a. According to Nance, his veins are “severely compromised and unsuitable for sustained intravenous access.” Ibid. They are, Nance says, likely to “blow” during the execution, “leading to the leakage of the lethal injection drug into the surrounding tissue” and thereby causing “intense pain and burning.” Ibid. On top of that, Nance asserts, his longtime use of a prescription drug for back pain creates a risk that the sedative used in the State's lethal injection protocol will fail to “render him unconscious and insensate.” Ibid. Nance proposes, as a “readily available alternative” method of execution, “death by firing

4 See Ga. Code Ann. § 17–10–38(a) (“All persons who have been convicted of a capital offense and have had imposed upon them a sentence of death shall suffer such punishment by lethal injection”).

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After the District Court dismissed Nance's suit as untimely, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected it for a different reason—that Nance had used the wrong procedural vehicle. In the panel majority's view, Nance should have brought his method-of-execution claim by way of a habeas petition rather than a § 1983 suit. A habeas petition, the court stated, is appropriate when a prisoner seeks to “invalidate” a death sentence. 981 F. 3d 1201, 1209 (2020). And the court thought that was what Nance was doing: The injunction he requested, preventing the use of lethal injection, “necessarily impl[ies] the invalidity of his death sentence.” Id., at 1203. That was so, the court reasoned, because Georgia law “must [be taken] as fixed”—and under that “fixed” law, if Nance could not be executed by lethal injection, then he could not be executed at all. Id., at 1211. The court therefore “reconstrued” Nance's complaint as a habeas petition. Id., at 1203. And having done so, the court dismissed the petition as “second or successive” because Nance had already sought federal habeas relief. 28 U. S. C. § 2244(b); see supra, at 165. Judge Martin dissented, arguing that Nance could proceed under § 1983. In her view, Nance was not challenging his death sentence; all he wanted was an order telling “the State to execute him by a different method.” 981 F. 3d, at 1215. The Eleventh Circuit denied Nance's petition for rehearing en banc over the dissent of three judges. See 994 F. 3d 1335 (2021).

We granted certiorari, 595 U. S. ––– (2022), and now

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In defining that core, this Court has focused on whether a claim challenges the validity of a conviction or sentence. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 475, 489 (1973). The simplest cases arise when an inmate, alleging a flaw in his conviction or sentence, seeks “immediate or speedier release” from prison. Heck, 512 U. S., at 481. The analogue in the capital punishment context, also clear-cut, is when an inmate seeks to overturn his death sentence, thus preventing the State from executing him. Slightly less obvious, this Court has held that an inmate must proceed in habeas when the relief he seeks would “necessarily imply the invalidity of his conviction or sentence.” Id., at 487 (barring § 1983 suits Page Proof Pending Publication

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In Nelson v. Campbell and Hill v. McDonough, this Court held two method-of-execution claims to fall on the § 1983 side of the divide. See Nelson, 541 U. S., at 644–647; Hill, 547 U. S. 573, 580–583 (2006). Both cases involved challenges to a State's lethal injection protocol—the first to the use of a “cut-down” procedure to access the prisoner's veins, the second to a particular three-drug sequence. The cases predated our requirement that prisoners identify alternative methods, but each prisoner had said enough to leave the Court convinced that alternatives to the challenged procedures were available. See Nelson, 541 U. S., at 646; Hill, 547 U. S., at 580–581. And that made the difference in both cases. A claim should go to habeas, the Court held, only if granting the prisoner relief “would necessarily prevent [the State] from carrying out its execution.” Nelson, 541 U. S., at 647 (emphasis in original); see Hill, 547 U. S., at 583. 5 In neither case would it have done so. Each prisoner had asked only for a change in implementing the death penalty, and an order granting that relief would not prevent the State

Both Nelson and Hill, though, reserved the question at issue here: whether the result should be different when a State's death-penalty statute does not authorize the alternative method of execution. See Nelson, 541 U. S., at 645; Hill, 547 U. S., at 580. In each case, the Court observed that using a different method required no change in the State's statute, but only a change in an agency's uncodified protocols. Here, all parties agree that Georgia would have to change its statute to carry out Nance's execution by means of a firing squad. They dispute whether that fact switches Nance's claim to the habeas track.

Except for the Georgia statute, this case would even more clearly than Nelson and Hill be ft for § 1983. Since those two cases, we have compelled a prisoner bringing a method-of-execution claim to propose an alternative way for the State to carry out his death sentence. He must, we have said, present a “proposal” that is “sufficiently detailed” to show that an alternative method is both “feasible” and “readily implemented.” Bucklew , 587 U. S., at –––; see supra, at 164. In other words, he must make the case that the State really can put him to death, though in a different way than it plans. The substance of the claim, now more than ever, thus points toward § 1983. The prisoner is not challenging the death sentence itself; he is taking the validity of that sentence as a given. And he is providing the State with a veritable blueprint for carrying the death sentence out. If the inmate obtains his requested relief, it is because he has persuaded a court that the State could readily use his proposal to execute him. The court's order therefore does not, as required for habeas, “necessarily prevent” the State from carrying out its execution. Nelson, 541 U. S., at 647 (emphasis in original). Rather, the order gives the

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The Court of Appeals could reach the contrary conclusion only by wrongly treating Georgia's statute as immutable. Recall the court's reasoning: Granting Nance relief would

And indeed, courts not uncommonly entertain prisoner suits under § 1983 that may, if successful, require changing state law. As noted earlier, the classic prisoner § 1983 suit is one challenging prison conditions—say, overcrowding or inadequate medical care. See supra, at 168. Those suits can be brought under § 1983 because—just like this one— they attack not the validity of a conviction or sentence, but only a way of implementing the sentence. (They concern, in other words, how the prescribed incarceration is being car-Page Proof Pending Publication

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Under the contrary approach, the federal vehicle for bringing a federal claim—and with that, the viability of the claim—would depend on the vagaries of state law. Consider how Nance's own method-of-execution claim would fare in different States. In Georgia (and any other State with lethal injection as the sole authorized method), he would have to bring his claim in a habeas petition. But in some other States primarily using lethal injection, he could file a § 1983 suit—because their statutes include back-up plans for when a court holds injection unconstitutional. See supra, at 163– 164. Oklahoma's statute, for example, provides in that event for several alternative methods, including a firing squad. Page Proof Pending Publication

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That part of the circuit court's opinion raises one last problem, because it threatens to undo the commitment this Court made in Bucklew . See post, at 178 (acknowledging the point, though finding it irrelevant). Recall that the Court there told inmates they could identify an alternative method of execution not “presently authorized” by the executing State's law. 587 U. S., at –––; see supra, at 164–165. That option would ensure state law does not “control[ ]” the Eighth Amendment inquiry; and it would keep manageable the inmate's “burden” to identify an alternative. 587 U. S., at ––– – –––. Under the circuit court's approach, however, that option is no option at all. Once an inmate presents an Page Proof Pending Publication

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One last point from Bucklew—this one about “dilatory” tactics—bears repeating here. Id., at –––. In recognizing that § 1983 is a good vehicle for a claim like Nance's, we do not for a moment countenance “last-minute” claims relied on to forestall an execution. Id., at –––. “Courts should police carefully against attempts to use [method-of-execution] challenges as tools to interpose unjustified delay.” Ibid. In de-ciding whether to grant a stay of execution, courts must consider whether such a challenge “could have been brought earlier” or otherwise reflects a prisoner's “attempt at manipulation.” Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted). And outside the stay context, courts have a variety of tools— including the “substantive [and] procedural limitations” that the Prison Litigation Reform Act imposes—to streamline § 1983 actions and protect “the timely enforcement of a sentence.” Nelson, 541 U. S., at 650 (listing PLRA limitations); Bucklew , 587 U. S., at –––. Finally, all § 1983 suits must be brought within a State's statute of limitations for personal-injury actions. See Wallace v. Kato , 549 U. S. 384, 387 (2007). Here, the District Court held Nance's suit untimely under that limitations period. See No. 20–cv–00107 (ND Ga., Mar. 13, 2020), ECF Doc. 26, p. 12; supra, at 166. The Eleventh Circuit did not review that holding because it instead reconstrued the action as a habeas petition. Now that Page Proof Pending Publication

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* * *

For the reasons stated, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Barrett, with whom Justice Thomas, Justice Alito , and Justice Gorsuch join, dissenting.

An inmate must bring a method-of-execution challenge in a federal habeas application, rather than under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, if “a grant of relief to the inmate would necessarily bar the execution.” Hill v. McDonough, 547 U. S. 573, 583 (2006). Under this criterion, Michael Nance must proceed in habeas because a judgment in his favor would “necessarily bar” the State from executing him. Ibid. Nance asked the District Court to “enjoin the Defendants from proceeding with [his] execution . . . by a lethal injection,” claiming that the use of such method would violate the Eighth Amendment as applied to him. App. to Pet. for Cert. 103a–104a. But lethal injection is the only method of execution authorized under Georgia law. See Ga. Code Ann. § 17–10–38(a) (2020). Thus, if Nance is successful, the defendants in this case—the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections and the warden—will be powerless to carry out his sentence. That makes habeas the right vehicle for Nance's Eighth Amendment challenge.

The Court sees things differently. True, Nance is arguing that the Eighth Amendment renders his sentence invalid under current Georgia law. But the Court points out that the law could change: The legislature could authorize execution by firing squad, the alternative method that Nance has proposed. In fact, the Court says that Nance's proposal of-Page Proof Pending Publication

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The Court is looking too far down the road. In my view, the consequence of the relief that a prisoner seeks depends on state law as it currently exists. And under existing state law, there is no question that Nance's challenge necessarily implies the invalidity of his lethal injection sentence: He seeks to prevent the State from executing him in the only way it lawfully can.

In this respect, Nance's method-of-execution challenge differs from those brought in Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U. S. 637 (2004), and Hill, 547 U. S. 573. In Nelson, the inmate challenged the use of a “cut-down” procedure to access his veins. 541 U. S., at 640–642. We held that the suit sounded in § 1983 because it would not “necessarily prevent Alabama from carrying out its execution.” Id., at 647. We reasoned that, though venous access was an indispensable prerequisite to lethal injection, “a particular means of gaining such access” was not. Id., at 645. Notably, “[n]o Alabama statute require[d] use of the cut-down,” and the State did not put forward any “duly-promulgated regulations to the contrary.” Id., at 646. So even a successful challenge on these grounds “would have allowed the State to proceed with the execution as scheduled.” Ibid.

The same was true in Hill, which involved an inmate's challenge to Florida's three-drug protocol. 547 U. S., at 578. We held that the inmate could proceed under § 1983 because his “action if successful would not necessarily prevent the State from executing him by lethal injection.” Id., at 580. We emphasized that the complaint did “not challenge the lethal injection sentence as a general matter” but instead only “the anticipated protocol.” Ibid. As in Nelson, we Page Proof Pending Publication

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Here, by contrast, the warden and the commissioner are not free to use an alternative to lethal injection—so if Nance succeeds, they cannot carry out his sentence. And though the Court contends otherwise, that consequence “switches Nance's claim to the habeas track.” Ante , at 169. An inmate can use § 1983 actions to challenge many, if not most, aspects of prison administration. But when a challenge would prevent a State from enforcing a conviction or sentence, the more rigorous, federalism-protective requirements of habeas apply. The Court finds a way around those requirements with a theory at odds with the very federalism interests they are designed to protect: that an injunction barring the State from enforcing a sentence according to state law does not really bar the State from enforcing the sentence because the State can pass a new law.

Unlike the Court, I would take state law as we find it in determining whether a suit sounds in habeas or § 1983. The Court worries that this approach would make the appropriate federal vehicle “depend on the vagaries of state law.” Ante , at 172. Some States, like Georgia, provide for a single method of execution by statute; other States, like Alabama, allow for more flexibility. See ante, at 172–173. So if state law determined the vehicle, an inmate in Georgia would have to challenge the lethal injection method in habeas, while an inmate in Alabama could use § 1983. But that does not illustrate “the vagaries of state law”; it is an unremarkable consequence of federalism. States make different choices in ex-ercising their power to define punishment, and the law has long recognized a sovereign's interest in mandating a particular form of capital punishment. Cf. 4 W. Blackstone, Com-Page Proof Pending Publication

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I understand the impulse to find a way out of habeas and into § 1983. In States like Georgia, a claim under Bucklew v. Precythe, 587 U. S. ––– (2019), alleging an alternative method of execution not presently authorized by state law would be difficult to assert in a federal habeas application because it would “almost inevitably collide with the second-or-successive bar.” Ante , at 174. But we acknowledged that very possibility in Bucklew . 587 U. S., at –––. And more importantly, the unavailability of federal habeas relief does not justify recourse to § 1983. Cf. Wilkinson v. Dot-son, 544 U. S. 74, 87–88 (2005) (Scalia, J., concurring) (“[A] prisoner who wishes to challenge the length of his confine-ment, but who cannot obtain federal habeas relief because of the statute of limitations or the restrictions on successive petitions, cannot use the unavailability of federal habeas relief in his individual case as grounds for proceeding under § 1983” (citations omitted)). The habeas statutes funnel such challenges to the state courts—which are, after all, “the principal forum” for them. Harrington v. Richter, 562 U. S. 86, 103 (2011).

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The attached opinion has been revised to refect the usual publication and citation style of the United States Reports. The revised pagination makes available the official United States Reports citation in advance of publication. The syllabus has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader and constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court. A list of counsel who argued or filed briefs in this case, and who were members of the bar of this Court at the time this case was argued, has been inserted following the syllabus. Other revisions may include adjustments to formatting, captions, citation form, and any errant punctuation. The following additional edits were made: None

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