Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/211/953/582537/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 15:05:48
Document Index: 75705133

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2241', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2241', 'art. 42', '§ 8', '§ 498', 'art. 42', '§ 508']

Dobber Graham Malchi, Petitioner-appellee, v. Rick Thaler, Warden, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Respondent-appellant, 211 F.3d 953 (5th Cir. 2000) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fifth Circuit › 2000 › Dobber Graham Malchi, Petitioner-appellee, v. Rick Thaler, Warden, Texas Department of Criminal Just...
Dobber Graham Malchi, Petitioner-appellee, v. Rick Thaler, Warden, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Respondent-appellant, 211 F.3d 953 (5th Cir. 2000)
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - 211 F.3d 953 (5th Cir. 2000)
The magistrate judge obtained a tape of the prison disciplinary hearing, held June 17, 1997, from which he gleaned the following facts. On June 11, 1997, Malchi, who worked at the Unit Law Library, left work at approximately 2:25 p.m. to return to his dorm. About an hour later, inmate Mark Chance, a fellow law library worker, asked petitioner to help him carry some books back from the law library. Malchi agreed and obtained a pass from the dorm officer, Nieto, for the law library where he and Chance picked up the books. As they started back to the dorm, Officers Patman and Nieto stopped them after receiving information that a box of envelopes designated for indigent inmates had been stolen from the law library. During the ensuing search, a box of envelopes was found on another inmate1 , but no contraband wasfound on Malchi. Malchi was then escorted to his living area and his personal items were searched. Ten envelopes for indigent inmates were discovered during the search. Officer McLilly wrote a disciplinary report charging petitioner with possession of contraband, described as "a box of indigent state envelopes."
The magistrate judge characterized Malchi's petition as arising under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. However, Malchi is alleging that the disciplinary action resulted in a change in his good-time- earning status which extended the date for his release on mandatory supervision. State prisoners who allege that they were improperly denied good-conduct credit that, if restored, would have resulted in their immediate or sooner release from prison, fall under § 2254. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 487 (1973); see also McGary v. Scott, 27 F.3d 181, 183 (5th Cir. 1994) (petition alleging the improper denial of good-time credits arose under § 2254 and was subject to the Rules Governing § 2254 cases); Story v. Collins, 920 F.2d 1247-51 (5th Cir. 1991). Thus, Malchi's petition arises under § 2254 rather than § 2241. A certificate of appealability is not required because a representative of the state is appealing the district court's grant of habeas relief. See Fed. R. App. P. 22(b) (3). We review the district court's findings of fact for clear error and decide issues of law de novo.See Clark v. Scott, 70 F.3d 386, 388 (5th Cir. 1995).
Federal habeas relief cannot be had "absent the allegation by a plaintiff that he or she has been deprived of some right secured to him or her by the United States Constitution or the laws of the United States." Orellana v. Kyle, 65 F.3d 29, 31 (5th Cir. 1995) (internal quotations and citation omitted). Malchi's habeas action is bottomed on his claim that the reduction in his good-time-earning status imposed as a result of the prison disciplinary proceeding implicates the Due Process Clause because it delayed his release under Texas's mandatory supervision law.
In Madison, the court observed that former Tex. Code Crim. P. Ann. art. 42.18 § 8(c) (Vernon 1996) provided for a mandatory release if an inmate has acquired the necessary amount of good-time credits based on his good behavior.4 See id. The court determined that the language of the Texas statute paralleled the provisions of the Nebraska statute interpreted in Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974) because both statutes bestowed mandatory sentence reductions for good behavior and allowed for a revocation of good-time credits for misbehavior. See Madison, 104 F.3d at 768. The Madison court noted that Wolff held that the Nebraska statute created a liberty interest in the mandatory sentence reductions for prisoners. See id.
The Warden contends that Malchi's reduction in good-time- earning status likewise does not impact the fact or duration of confinement. The Warden points out that Malchi's disciplinary sanction did not forfeit previously earned good-time credits. Rather, it reduced his good-time-earning status - that is, one day of good conduct after the disciplinary sanction was imposed earns less credit toward release at L-1 than the same conduct earns at S-3. Prison officials calculated that Malchi's projected date of release on mandatory supervision changed due to the subject disciplinary action from November 5, 2000 to May 24, 2001. The Warden argues that the affect of Malchi's time-earning class on his ultimate release date is too attenuated to invoke the procedural guarantees of the Due Process Clause, citing Luken v. Scott, 71 F.3d 192, 193 (5th Cir. 1995) and Carson v. Johnson, 112 F.3d 818, 821 (5th Cir. 1997). In Luken, we rejected a prisoner's claim that reduced opportunity for earning good-time credits evokeda constitutionally protected liberty interest in the context of release on parole. See 71 F.3d at 193 (citing Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 229 n.8 (1976) (noting that possible effect on parole decision does not create liberty interest)). Similarly, in Carson, we held that a prisoner has not stated a habeas corpus cause of action when he contends that an erroneous assignment to administrative segregation is making him ineligible for parole. See 112 F.3d at 821.
The Warden's argument relies on the observation that there is a chance that Malchi may, without reference to this or any other disciplinary action, fail to earn the full measure of good-time credit available at S-3 status. Thus Malchi's projected mandatory supervision release date is speculative. Texas law provides that " [g]ood conduct time is a privilege and not a right." Tex. Govt. Code Ann. § 498.003(a) (Vernon 1998). Assignment to a particular time-earning status depends on a wide variety of factors, including how long an inmate has been in the Texas prison system, his disciplinary record, his participation in education and work activities and the Texas good-conduct laws in effect on his offense date. See Texas Dept. Crim. Justice Offender Orientation Handbook, II.D. Good Conduct Time (August 1997). For example, an inmate who is too ill to work cannot earn the maximum amount of good-conduct credit regardless of a flawless disciplinary record.
While Malchi's time-earning status is less attenuated from his mandatory release than release on parole, we nonetheless conclude that the timing of Malchi's release is too speculative to afford him a constitutionally cognizable claim to the "right" to a particular time-earning status, which right the Texas legislature has specifically denied creating. See Bulger v. United States, 65 F.3d 48, 50 (5th Cir. 1995) (holding that the loss of a prison job did not implicate the prisoner's liberty interest even though the prisoner lost the ability to automatically accrue good-time credits). We therefore conclude that the district court erred in granting Malchi habeas corpus relief.
A Texas prisoner who is not on parole shall be released to mandatory supervision when his calendar time plus his accrued good-conduct time equals the maximum term to which he was sentenced. Tex. Code Crim. P. Ann. art. 42.18(c) (Vernon 1996).
The new Texas Mandatory Supervision law adds a dimension of discretion to the Mandatory Supervision scheme, providing that if a parole panel determines that the inmate's accrued good conduct time is not an accurate reflection of the inmate's potential for rehabilitation and the inmate's release would endanger the public, he may not be released to mandatory supervision. See Tex. Govt. Code Ann. § 508.149(b) (Vernon 1998).