Ewell v. Angelone

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT STACY L. EWELL,  Plaintiff-Appellant, v.  No. 02-7185 RONALD J. ANGELONE, Defendant-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria. Claude M. Hilton, Chief District Judge. (CA-02-622-AM) Submitted: December 19, 2002 Decided: January 30, 2003 Before LUTTIG and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. COUNSEL Stacy L. Ewell, Appellant Pro Se. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). 2 EWELL v. ANGELONE OPINION PER CURIAM: Stacy L. Ewell, a Virginia prisoner, filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2000), seeking immediate release from confine- ment. Ewell alleged in his § 2254 petition that his good conduct cred- its were improperly denied and calculated such that he should have been released from confinement in November 1999. The district court analyzed his claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) and dismissed the action for failure to state a claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1915A (2000). The core of Ewell’s lawsuit is an attack on the length of his con- finement. Such a claim sounds in habeas corpus, rather than § 1983. See Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 497-500 (1973); Todd v. Bas- kerville, 712 F.2d 70, 73 (4th Cir. 1983). Accordingly, we vacate and remand for the district court to analyze Ewell’s claims in the context of a § 2254 petition consistent with this opinion. We decline to address any of Ewell’s habeas claims on the merits. VACATED AND REMANDED