Gallardo v. Rios

Background

Ricardo Gallardo filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus without a lawyer. The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer, who recommended denying the petition. Gallardo objected, requiring the district court to independently review the challenged parts of the recommendation. He also filed a motion seeking a decision on his petition and judicial notice of an alleged entitlement to 105 days of earned credits under the First Step Act.

Gallardo had originally received a 360-month prison sentence on December 16, 2005. The sentencing court later reduced that sentence to 292 months under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and Amendment 782 to the Sentencing Guidelines. President Obama later granted clemency, and the Bureau of Prisons recalculated Gallardo’s sentence to 240 months.

Gallardo’s Clemency Argument

Gallardo argued that the final sentence calculation failed to give proper effect to his clemency grant. He pointed out that his clemency petition had requested a 120-month reduction and argued that the clemency reduction should have been applied after the Amendment 782 reduction.

The court rejected that interpretation. The clemency order did not grant a separate 120-month reduction. Instead, it commuted Gallardo’s total sentence of imprisonment to a term of 240 months. The court agreed with Magistrate Judge Bowbeer that the presidential order did not require a specific reduction from whatever sentence had been calculated, and did not require the earlier sentence analysis under § 3582(c)(2) to be redone using the 240-month commuted sentence.

First Step Act Request

Gallardo also sought judicial notice of his alleged entitlement to 105 days of earned credits under the First Step Act. The court explained that a motion seeking a sentence reduction under that law must be filed in the court that imposed the sentence, rather than in the district where the person is incarcerated. Gallardo identified the Northern District of Illinois as his sentencing court, so this court did not grant that request.

Ruling

The court overruled Gallardo’s objections and accepted the Report and Recommendation in full. It granted Gallardo’s motion to the extent the motion sought disposition of the action and denied the motion in all other respects. The court dismissed the petition with prejudice and ordered judgment entered accordingly.

Classification Note

This order is classified as mixed because the court reached the merits of Gallardo’s challenge to the sentence calculation but disposed of his First Step Act request on the ground that it was filed in the wrong court.