U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York Case Summaries:

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Aug 6, 2008

'Habeas Corpus'

Commitment Order

Reed v. Alexander

05-CV-00236

Judge Singleton

Background: The petitioner is a prisoner at the Altona Correctional Facility. He was convicted of rape in Niagara County Court in 1993. In April 2002, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Western District of New York challenging the loss of 120 days good time following a Tier III prison disciplinary hearing, which the district court denied on Aug. 8, 2007. At his first hearing before the parole board, he was denied parole and another hearing was scheduled in two years' time. Litigation followed and the petitioner brought a habeas petition contending he is being illegally confined on an invalid commitment order in violation of his constitutional due process rights. The respondent raises as his sole defense the fact that Reed has not exhausted his state court remedies.

Ruling: Reed is not entitled to immediate release because there is a valid judgment of conviction underlying the commitment order, therefore habeas corpus relief is not appropriate. The petition is denied.

Robert I. Reed, pro se, and Alyson J. Gill, New York State Attorney General's Office, for the respondent