Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/594-f-2d-170-595845662
Timestamp: 2019-12-05 19:38:39
Document Index: 492711463

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1001', '§ 4208', '§ 4205', '§ 4201', '§ 4208', '§ 4202', '§ 4208']

594 F.2d 170 (7th Cir. 1979), 78-2051, Rodriguez v. United States Parole Commission - Federal Cases - Case Law - VLEX 595845662
594 F.2d 170 (7th Cir. 1979), 78-2051, Rodriguez v. United States Parole Commission
Docket Nº: 78-2051.
Citation: 594 F.2d 170
Party Name: John J. RODRIGUEZ, Petitioner-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES PAROLE COMMISSION and Metropolitan Correctional Center, Robert Elsea, Warden, Respondent-Appellants.
594 F.2d 170 (7th Cir. 1979)
Petitioner John Rodriguez was prosecuted and convicted in early 1977 of having made false statements to a government agency and having used the mails to defraud in 1974 and 1975. The charges were presumably laid under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001, 1341. 1 On April 21, 1977, he was sentenced to a maximum term of two years imprisonment under then 18 U.S.C. § 4208(a)(2), now 18 U.S.C. § 4205(b) (2), which meant he was eligible for parole immediately. 2 Rodriguez
began serving his sentence on May 12, 1977, at the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana, and received an "initial parole determination" hearing about three months later, on August 15, 1977. On August 25, 1977, the Parole Commission denied Rodriguez' petition for release and determined that he should serve his maximum sentence. 3 Later, Rodriguez was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago where he applied for a review hearing. Relying on the Parole Commission's new regulation, the officials there refused to schedule such a hearing. Rodriguez then filed this habeas corpus action. The district court held that his rights under the Ex post facto clause had been violated and ordered him released unless the commission held a meaningful hearing within 30 days. When the commission appealed, he was released on bond, pending the outcome of the appeal.
Before 1976 the parole statute, 18 U.S.C. §§ 4201, Et seq. (1970), did not prescribe "when, or how often" a prisoner was entitled to parole consideration. See 42 Fed.Reg. 31785 (June 23, 1977). For prisoners sentenced under then 18 U.S.C. § 4208(a)(2) (1970), the Board of Parole, now the Parole Commission, 4 adopted the practice of conducting an initial hearing shortly after commitment. See Garafola v. Benson, 505 F.2d 1212, 1215 (7th Cir. 1974). Also, as we recounted in that opinion,
Ironically, prisoners who were not eligible for parole until they had served one-third of their sentences, having been sentenced under former 18 U.S.C. § 4202, stood a better chance of being paroled at that time than prisoners sentenced under § 4208(a)(2). For them the initial parole hearing was held at
the one-third point in their sentences, and it was a meaningful one, for by then substantial institutional experience with the prisoner had been gained and he might hope to demonstrate changes in motivation and behavior. "In a substantial number of cases, the prisoner (was) granted a parole at this initial hearing." Id. at 1215.