Beal v. Kallis

Background

Justin Beal, who represented himself, was serving a 14-month prison term for violating supervised release. He petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, asking the court to apply 45 days of good-conduct credit to that sentence under the First Step Act. His request relied on the Act’s retroactive application to his original 78-month sentence.

Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer recommended denying the petition. The recommendation concluded that any good-conduct credit Beal earned on his original sentence expired when he was released from that sentence. Beal timely objected.

Analysis

The court reviewed the recommendation from the beginning because Beal objected to it. Beal argued that the recommendation conflicted with Supreme Court decisions stating that penalties imposed after supervised-release revocation relate to and form part of the original sentence.

The court rejected that argument. It explained that those decisions did not conflict with treating the post-revocation sentence as separate from the original sentence when calculating good-conduct time. The court also relied on a recent Eighth Circuit decision affirming that approach. Because Beal’s good-conduct credit from the original sentence expired when he was released from that sentence, he was not entitled to apply the credit to his 14-month revocation sentence.

Ruling

The court overruled Beal’s objection, adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation in its entirety, denied the habeas petition, and dismissed the action with prejudice. Judge David S. Doty directed that judgment be entered accordingly.