Opinions of the United
2007 Decisions States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit
5-31-2007
Watkins v. Atty Gen USA
Precedential or Non-Precedential: Non-Precedential
Docket No. 07-1285
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"Watkins v. Atty Gen USA" (2007). 2007 Decisions. Paper 1050.
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DLD-227 NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
________________
No. 07-1285
________________
JOSEPH WATKINS,
Appellant,
v.
ALBERTO GONZALES, Attorney General;
JONATHAN C. MINER, Warden of U.S.P. Allenwood
________________
On Appeal From the United States District Court
For the Middle District of Pennsylvania
(D.C. Civ. No. 06-cv-01619)
Chief District Judge: Honorable Yvette Kane
________________
Submitted For Possible Summary Action Under Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6
May 10, 2007
BEFORE: BARRY, AMBRO and FISHER, Circuit Judges
(Filed: May 31, 2007)
________________
OPINION
________________
PER CURIAM
Appellant, Joseph Watkins, timely appeals from the District Court’s denial
of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
Watkins, a federal inmate, filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241
challenging the administration of his sentence. Many of the issues therein had been
raised previously in a 2002 petition and rejected both by the District Court and by this
Court on appeal. See M.D.Pa. Civ. No. 02-cv-1903; C.A. No. 04-1097. At the time this
earlier petition was filed, Watkins had a full term expiration date of January 24, 2008, and
a projected release date, factoring in good time credit, of December 12, 2005. We agree
with the District Court’s refusal to revisit petitioner’s old claims and to consider only
those alleged miscalculations in petitioner’s sentence which occurred after the period
addressed in his prior petition. The instant petition appears to allege a miscalculation of
his good time credit during this period, which has led to a projected release date of
November 13, 2007. The District Court found no error in the government’s calculations
and rejected the petition.
We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 & 2253 and
undertake plenary review of the judgment of the District Court. See Ruggiano v. Reish,
307 F.3d 121, 126 (3d Cir. 2002). Like the District Court, we find no error in the
government’s calculation of petitioner’s release date.1 When we last reviewed
petitioner’s sentence, the full term expiration date was January 24, 2008. Factoring in
good time credit, his projected release date was December 12, 2005. Since that time,
Watkins has been penalized for various infractions by the forfeiture of 688 days of good
1
As the events in this case are familiar to the parties and ably summarized in the
District Court’s memorandum, we limit ourselves to a short summary of the relevant
changes in petitioner’s release date.
2
time credit. He also earned an additional 7 days of good time credit for time spent in a
Residential Reentry Center. Finally, the Bureau of Prisons corrected a computation error
in his sentence which led to the addition of 27 days to his full term release date and the
addition of 7 days projected good time credit. In total, these changes have resulted in the
addition of 701 days to his projected release date. Petitioner does not challenge the
validity of these adjustments, but rather contends “improper computation.” The
government has made its calculations correctly and set Watkins’s projected release date
as November 13, 2007, 701 days after December 12, 2005.
Accordingly, we will affirm the judgment of the district court. Petitioner’s
motion for summary reversal is denied.
3