Sanchez v . Warden, NHSP CV-04-083-JD 08/09/04 P UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Miguel Sanchez

v. N o . 04-083-JD Opinio n N o .

Warden, New Hampshire State Prison

O R D E R

Miguel Sanchez, proceeding pro s e , seeks habeas corpus

relief, pursuant to

, to correct his sentence as

calculated and imposed by the state court. Sanchez contends that

his sentence is improper and in violation of due process because

he was not given credit for ninety-six days of pretrial

confinement and because he was not given credit for time that

elapsed while he was erroneously at liberty.1 The warden moves

for summary judgment, acknowledging that Sanchez is entitled to

credit for an additional ninety-six days of pretrial confinement

but challenging his claim for credit for the time he was

1 Sanchez also alleged that his counsel was constitutionally ineffective at his resentencing. That issue was not identified as a claim in the order on preliminary review, and Sanchez did not move to amend his petition, as was required to preserve claims that were not included in the order on preliminary review. As a result, the warden did not address the ineffective assistance of counsel claim in her motion for summary judgment. Sanchez did not raise the claim in his response or in his own motion for summary judgment. erroneously at liberty.

Background

Miguel Sanchez was arrested in November of 1995 on two

charges of possession of controlled drugs with intent to sell,

and he was released on bail at the end of the month. In December

he was arrested on a domestic violence charge and served fifteen

days in the Hillsborough House of Corrections. In January 1996,

while he was out on bail on the state charges, Sanchez was

arrested on a federal charge of making a false statement on a

passport application.

Sanchez was taken into federal custody on January 1 9 , 1996.

On April 1 , 1996, he was convicted on the federal charges and was

sentenced to six months incarceration at the federal prison in

Fort Dix, New Jersey. On May 2 9 , 1996, two days before his

release date on his federal sentence, Sanchez was transferred to the Hillsborough County House of Corrections pursuant to the

Interstate Agreement on Detainers. He was convicted on the two

drug possession charges on March 2 5 , 1997, and was sentenced on

May 9, 1997, to seven-and-a-half to fifteen years in the New

Hampshire State Prison on one charge with the same sentence on

the other charge suspended.

On June 1 0 , 1997, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s

2 Department transported Sanchez from the New Hampshire State

Prison back to Fort Dix, New Jersey, to complete his federal

sentence. When Sheriff’s Department officers arrived with

Sanchez, however, the federal authorities told them that his

sentence had expired a year earlier. The Sheriff’s Department

officers had only the mittimus relating to Sanchez’s suspended sentence so they erroneously thought that he had no sentence to

serve in a New Hampshire prison. They released Sanchez in New

Jersey.

Sanchez provides additional information about his release in

an affidavit he submitted with his habeas petition. He states

that when the officers told him that he was free to go in New

Jersey, he told them that he did not understand. They

nevertheless insisted that he was free to g o . He asked to be

taken back to New Hampshire because he had family in Massachusetts and friends in New Hampshire, but the officers

refused. When Sanchez explained to them that he had no money, no

identification, no transportation, and only a check from the

prison that had to be cashed in New Hampshire, they told him to

get out of the car and not to come back to New Hampshire.

Sanchez states that the officers left him by the side of the road

in front of a restaurant.

Sanchez states that he went into the restaurant and told his

3 story to the patrons. One man agreed to drive him to the train station in Philadelphia, which he did, and he gave him five dollars. Sanchez did not have money to buy a ticket, but he says that the conductor let him stay on the train after hearing his story. The conductor gave him an address to send the money for his ticket. Once in Boston, a friend met Sanchez and drove him to Manchester where he cashed his prison check. He apparently stayed in Massachusetts thereafter.

On June 1 7 , 1997, the Sheriff’s Department realized they had made a mistake and a warrant for Sanchez’s arrest was issued. On September 1 , 1997, Sanchez was arrested in Massachusetts on a charge of attempted kidnaping and giving a false name. Because he was using a false name, the New Hampshire arrest warrant against him did not come up at that time. When his true identity surfaced in December of 1997, he was arrested on the Hillsborough County warrant as a fugitive from justice. He was convicted on the Massachusetts charge of attempted kidnaping on April 2 1 , 1998, and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in the Suffolk County House of Correction in Massachusetts. While incarcerated in Massachusetts, Sanchez fought extradition to New Hampshire.2

2 In his affidavit, Sanchez disputes that he fought extradition but acknowledges that he signed a lot of papers presented to him by his public defenders. The state court found that he fought extradition, and Sanchez has not shown by clear

4 He was returned to complete his New Hampshire sentence on

November 2 9 , 1999.

In 2000, Sanchez filed a petition for habeas corpus in state

court seeking credit for pretrial and post-extradition

confinement and for the time he was at liberty after being

released in New Jersey. On March 1 3 , 2001, the state court

granted his habeas claim as to some of the pretrial confinement

credit but otherwise denied his petition. On August 1 9 , 2002,

the New Hampshire Supreme Court vacated Sanchez’s sentence. New

counsel was appointed for Sanchez, and he was resentenced on

December 1 9 , 2002, to seven-and-a-half to fifteen years in the

New Hampshire State Prison. In July of 2003, Sanchez filed a

motion to correct his sentence, which was denied on July 3 0 ,

2003, by Judge James J. Barry, Jr., without a written decision.

On appeal, the New Hampshire Supreme Court remanded the case for

“an order with reasons sufficient for this court to review

concerning the denial of the defendant’s motion to correct

improper sentence.” Judge Barry held a hearing and issued a

written decision on December 3 , 2003, again denying Sanchez’s

motion. The supreme court declined Sanchez’s appeal from that

decision.

and convincing evidence that the finding is in error. See § 2254(e)(1).

5 Discussion

The Warden now agrees with Sanchez that he is entitled to an

additional ninety-six days of credit against his sentence for time that he served in state custody. Specifically, the Warden

states that Sanchez is entitled to ninety-four days for the

period from November 2 9 , 1999, to March 2 , 1999, while he was

incarcerated at the Hillsborough County House of Correction, and

for two more days that were incorrectly omitted from the credit

he was given for the period from March 2 , 2000, through December

1 9 , 2002. Therefore, Sanchez’s petition is granted as to his

first claim.

Sanchez’s second claim is that he is entitled to credit for the time he spent at liberty after the Hillsborough County

Sheriff’s Department erroneously set him free on June 1 0 , 1997,

and until he was returned to custody in New Hampshire on November

2 9 , 1999. Sanchez’s claim invokes a common law doctrine,

recognized by some state and federal courts, that the government

cannot arbitrarily delay the expiration of a prisoner’s sentence

by forcing him to serve his sentence in installments or by

failing to credit him for time while he was erroneously released

6 from custody.3 See, e.g., Free v . Miles,

5 0 , 554-55

(5th Cir. 2003); Weekes v . Fleming,

(10th

Cir. 2002); Dunne v . Keohane,

(7th Cir.

1994); United States v . Martinez,

6 1 , 865 (9th Cir.

1988); United States v . Nickens,

2 , 76 (D.P.R.

1994); State v . Valrand,

1 8 , 520 (1961); Timothy P.

Lydon, If the Parole Board Blunders, Does the Fourteenth

Amendment Set the Prisoner Free? Balancing the Liberty Interests

of Erroneously Released Prisoners,

(March 2000);

Gabriel J. Chin, Getting out of Jail Free: Sentence Credit for

Periods of Mistaken Liberty, 45 Cath. U . L . Rev. 403 (Winter

1996). Sanchez also cites Sandin v . Conner,

(1995),

3 A separate and distinct doctrine holds that the government is barred from requiring a prisoner to serve or complete a sentence after the government erroneously releases or fails to incarcerate the prisoner, without fault by the prisoner, and delays incarceration or reincarceration for an inordinate amount of time. See, e.g., Hawkins v . Freeman,

3 2 , 744-45 (4th Cir. 1999) (citing cases); Bonebrake v . Norris,

2 8 , 930-31 (E.D. Ark. 2003) (same); United States v . Mercedes,

, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 1 7 , 1997) (same). In contrast, Sanchez contends that he is entitled to credit against his sentence, which he is serving, for the time he was erroneously at liberty due to the state’s mistake. Although Sanchez also argues that he is entitled to “commutation” of his sentence as an alternative to crediting him with the time while he was erroneously at liberty, that is not pled as a separate claim. In any case, the state did not lose jurisdiction over Sanchez or unreasonably delay its efforts to return him to custody in New Hampshire.

7 and Thompson v . Cockrell,

(5th Cir. 2001), to

support his claim.

To be entitled to habeas relief under § 2254 when the state

court adjudicated his federal claim on the merits, a petitioner

must show that the state court’s decision “was contrary t o , or

involved an unreasonable application o f , clearly established

Federal Law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United

States.”4 § 2254(d)(1). A state court’s decision is not

“contrary to” federal law when it fails to cite federal

precedent. Early v . Packer,

, 8 (2002). “[A] state

court need not even be aware of [Supreme Court] precedents, so

long as neither the reasoning nor the result of the state-court

decision contradicts them.” Mitchell v . Esparza, 124 S . C t . 7 ,

10 (2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). A decision is

“contrary to” clearly established Supreme Court precedent if it

“‘applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in our cases’ or if it ‘confronts a set of facts that are materially

indistinguishable from a decision of this Court and nevertheless

arrives at a result different from our precedent.’”

(quoting

Williams v . Taylor,

6 2 , 405-406 (2000)).

4 Sanchez has not argued or demonstrated that the state court decision “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” § 2254(d)(2); see also § 2245(e)(1).

8 “Under the ‘unreasonable application’ prong of

(d)(1), the petition may be granted if the state court

‘identifies the correct governing legal principle from [the

Supreme] Court’s decisions but unreasonably applies that

principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.’” Horton v .

Allen,

5 , 80 (1st Cir. 2004) (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 4 1 3 ) . An unreasonable application of the law is

objectively unreasonable, not merely incorrect. Williams, 529

U.S. at 410-11. If the state court did not resolve the

petitioner’s federal claim, however, the deferential standard

required by § 2254(d) does not apply and instead, the claim is

reviewed under a de novo standard. Horton, 370 F.3d at 80

(citing Fortini v . Murphy,

9 , 47 (1st Cir. 2001);

Norton v . Spencer,

, 5 (1st Cir. 2003)).

The last state court proceeding to address Sanchez’s claims was initiated by his “Motion to Correct Improper Sentence” filed

in July of 2003, which was denied by the state court’s decision

in December of 2003. See State v . Sanchez, 96-S-0134 (N.H.

Super. C t . Dec. 3 , 2003). The court found that Sanchez was

released “through a ministerial error that was attempted to be

rectified within one week of its coming to light. Once the

defendant’s whereabouts were learned, the State did everything

within its power to seek his return to the State of New

9 Hampshire.”

at * 5 . The court concluded: “The defendant is

not entitled to any credit for the time he was at liberty.”

The court provided little reasoned analysis in support of

the decision, citing only two New Hampshire cases.5 The first

case, State v . Harnum, applies to Sanchez’s claim under New

Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated § 651-A:23 for credit for

pretrial confinement.

(1997). The other case

cited by the state court, State v . Sheehy,

(1975),

considers the federal due process implications when the state

compels a paroled prisoner to serve out his sentence after he is

arrested and held in custody in another jurisdiction. The court

held that “[t]he State cannot, consistent with the fundamental

principles of justice protected by the due process clause of the

fourteenth amendment, compel a parolee to serve out his sentence

after the State has manifested a gross disinterest in him.”

. To the extent Sanchez raised a claim in state court, and maintains that claim here, that he was entitled to avoid his

5 The state court decision issued in 2001 on Sanchez’s habeas petition considered the common law rule and held that because the state was merely negligent in causing his release and issued an arrest warrant within a week of the release, Sanchez was not entitled to credit for that time. Sanchez v . Gerry, 00-E-471 (N.H. Super. C t . Mar. 1 3 , 2001). Because Sanchez was resentenced after that decision issued and his motion to correct his sentence pertained to the later-imposed sentence, the earlier 2001 decision is not before the court for habeas review.

10 sentence altogether, Sheehy is pertinent to that claim. The state court’s decision on that claim is neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of federal law. See footnote 3 , supra. Sheehy is not pertinent to the claim, raised in state court and in this proceeding, in which Sanchez seeks credit for the time after he was erroneously released from the state’s custody. The state court did not decide that claim on the merits in the 2003 decision. Therefore, the decision to deny Sanchez’s motion, as to that claim, is reviewed under the de novo standard.6

A. Procedural Due Process

Sanchez’s claim for credit against his sentence for the time

after the state erroneously released him raises an issue of a

prisoner’s right to due process before the government may extend

his sentence. In Sandin, the Supreme Court considered a

prisoner’s claim that his conviction on a disciplinary infraction

and confinement in segregation, in the absence of the procedures

required by Wolff v . McDonnell,

(1974), violated due

process. Sandin,

. The Court reviewed its due

6 In her motion for summary judgment, the warden suggests that the 2001 and 2003 decisions should be reviewed together and asserts, without proper analysis, that the deferential standard of § 2254(d) applies in this case.

11 process jurisprudence in similar contexts and reiterated the rule

that “[t]he Due Process Clause standing alone confers no liberty

interest in freedom from state action taken within the sentence

imposed.” Id. at 480 (internal quotation marks omitted). The

Court recognized that even when the due process clause itself

does not provide protected liberty interests, nevertheless: States may under certain circumstances create liberty interests which are protected by the Due Process Clause . . . [b]ut these interests will be generally limited to freedom from restraint which, while not exceeding the sentence in such an unexpected manner as to give rise to protection by the Due Process Clause of its own force, . . . nonetheless imposes atypical and significant hardship on the inmate in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.

Id. at 483-84. The Court held that “discipline in segregated

confinement did not present the type of atypical, significant

deprivation in which a State might conceivably create a liberty

interest.” Id. at 486. The Court also distinguished the

petitioner’s case from one that would be protected by the due

process clause itself, “where the State’s action will inevitably

affect the duration of [the prisoner’s] sentence.” Id. at 487.

Therefore, the Court held that the petitioner was not entitled to

the procedures mandated by Wolff. Sandin,

.

In Thompson, the Fifth Circuit considered the due process

implications of a prisoner’s inadvertent release in the context

of Sandin and Superintendent, Mass. Corr. Inst. v . Hill,

(1985), and concluded, based on Texas law, that the

prisoner had a state-created liberty interest not to lose

calendar time against his sentence because of the state’s

erroneous decision to release him.7 Thompson,

-

28. The court first decided that the due process clause itself

does not protect a prisoner’s right to credit for time while he

was erroneously released because “‘[r]equiring [him] to complete

the remainder of his sentence after his premature release does

not exceed his sentence in an unexpected manner.”

.

The court then considered whether Texas law created a protected

liberty interest.

Noting a Texas case that prohibited the state from requiring

prisoners to serve sentences in installments, the court held that

state law created “a legal entitlement to calendar time during

the period of Thompson’s release.”

at 427 (citing Ex parte

Morris,

(Tex. Crim. App. 1982)). 8 The court also ruled that “[t]he deprivation of calendar time inevitably

affected the duration of Thompson’s confinement” because he would

7 In Hill, the Supreme Court ruled that a prisoner has a liberty interest in good time credits and that the due process clause requires that a decision by a prison disciplinary board to revoke good time credits must be supported by at least “some evidence.”

. 8 Ex parte Morris was subsequently overruled by Ex parte Hale,

, 872 n.26 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003).

13 have to make up the time that elapsed while he was erroneously at

liberty.

As a result, the court held that based on Sandin

and Hill, Thompson was entitled to the procedural protections

provided in Wolff before the state could deny him credit against

his sentence for the time he was erroneously released. Id. at

427. Because the state had provided no evidence to support its denial of credit for that time, the court ruled that Thompson was

entitled to credit for the time. Id. at 428.

It might be persuasively argued, based on Sandin and

contrary to the interpretation in Thompson, that because the

state’s decision not to credit Sanchez for the time he was

erroneously at liberty will inevitably affect the duration of his

confinement, he has a liberty interest in that time that is

protected by procedural due process. See, e.g., Dunne,

(explaining effect of release time on expiration of sentence). In addition, as in the Texas case relied on in

Thompson, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has held that “a

prisoner is entitled to serve his sentence continuously and is

not required to serve it in installments in the absence of

statutory authority.” Valrand,

. Based on either

theory, Sanchez could have a liberty interest in credit for the

time that elapsed while he was erroneously at liberty that would

implicate procedural due process protections.

14 It is not necessary, however, to decide which, if either, of

the due process analyses would apply to Sanchez’s claim, because

no procedural due process violation occurred in his case. A

prisoner is entitled, at a minimum, to the process described in

Wolff,

, before the state may infringe a protected

liberty interest. See McGuinness v . Dubois,

9 4 , 797 (1st Cir. 1996). Sanchez’s sentence was reviewed in the state

courts in three different proceedings: his habeas corpus

proceeding decided in March of 2001, his resentencing in December

of 2002, and the proceeding on his motion to correct his sentence

in July of 2003. Sanchez has not shown nor even argued that the

process he was provided at any of those proceedings failed to

meet the Wolff requirements. Therefore, based on the record

presented for purposes of habeas corpus, Sanchez received the

process which was required and no procedural due process violation occurred.

B. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

If Sanchez intended and were permitted to maintain a claim

that his counsel’s representation at his resentencing was

ineffective for failing to argue that he was entitled to credit

for the time after he was erroneously released, the claim would

15 not be successful.9 To prove a claim of ineffective assistance

of counsel, Sanchez would have to show both that his counsel’s

performance was deficient and that he was prejudiced as a result.

Castillo v . Matesanz,

, 11 (1st Cir. 2003) (citing

Strickland v . Washington,

6 8 , 587 (1984)). The record

presented in support of Sanchez’s habeas corpus petition includes

nothing to prove the elements of the claim.

Sanchez would not be entitled to a hearing to develop the

factual basis of his claim unless he was not at fault in failing

to develop the evidence in the state proceedings or he satisfies

the requirements of § 2254(d)(2). Holland v . Jackson, 124 S . C t .

2736, 2738 (U.S. 2004). He did not raise a claim of ineffective

assistance of counsel with respect to credit for the time after

he was erroneously released as part of his state court motion to

correct his sentence or on appeal, and the state court decision

does not mention such a claim.10 He also has not shown that the

9 As noted in footnote one, although Sanchez included a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in his petition, he did not seek to clarify his claims to include that claim in response to the magistrate judge’s order on preliminary review nor did he pursue that claim in his own motion for summary judgment or in response to the warden’s motion. 10 In the first numbered paragraph of his “Motion to Correct Improper Sentence,” Sanchez wrote that his counsel at his resentencing proceeding was “grossly ineffective” to the extent he either suggested or agreed with the number of days Sanchez was credited for pretrial confinement. Sanchez did not raise a

16 requirements of § 2254(d)(2) would be satisfied by the

circumstances of this case. Therefore, because no factual basis

exists in the record, Sanchez has failed to prove his ineffective

assistance of counsel claim, and it is denied.

C. Substantive Due Process

Due process includes more than the right to fair procedures.

Aversa v . United States,

(1st Cir. 1996)

(citing Daniels v . Williams,

2 7 , 331 (1986)). “The

Clause also provides heightened protection against government

interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty

interests.” Washington v . Glucksberg,

0 2 , 720 (1997).

The First Circuit holds that substantive due process violations

may occur in two different circumstances, without limiting the

grounds to executive or legislative action: when the state

deprives a person of an identified liberty or property interest

that is protected by the due process clause or when the state’s

separate claim of ineffective assistance of counsel or otherwise pursue such a claim in his motion, and he did not assert that counsel was ineffective for failing to seek credit for the time Sanchez was erroneously at liberty. There is no suggestion in the state court’s decision that such a claim was presented as part of the hearing.

17 conduct is such that it “shocks the conscience.”11 Rosenfeld v .

Egy,

1 , 15 (1st Cir. 2003); Cruz-Erazo v . Rivera-

Montanez,

1 7 , 622 (1st Cir. 2000); Pittsley v . Warish,

, 6 (1st Cir. 1991). But c.f. United States v . Acosta-

Martinez,

3 , 21 (1st Cir. 2001) (“When testing

executive action, the Supreme Court has used the ‘shocking to the

conscience’ test.”).

The First Circuit describes conscience-shocking conduct as

“state actions which are arbitrary and capricious, or those that

run counter to the concept of ordered liberty, or those which, in

context, appear shocking or violative of universal standards of

decency.” Cruz-Erazo,

(internal quotation marks

omitted). In DeWitt v . Ventetoulo,

2 , 35 (1st Cir.

1993), the court held that only in an extreme case would an

11 In contrast, the Supreme Court has held that executive action, rather than legislative action, violates substantive due process only when that action is conscience-shocking. County of Sacramento v . Lewis,

(1998); Beck v . Wilson,

, *5 (8th Cir. July 2 9 , 2004); Fraternal Order of Police Dep’t,

(D.C. Cir. July 2 0 , 2004); Benn v . Universal Health Sys., Inc.,

, 174 (3d Cir. 2004); United States v . Al-Hamdi,

6 4 , 574 (4th Cir. 2004); Sperle v . Mich. Dep’t of Corrs.,

, 491 (6th Cir. 2002); United States v . Rahman,

8 , 131 (2d Cir. 1999). See also Hawkins,

(explaining different analyses applicable to substantive due process claims depending on whether challenged action is executive or legistlative).

18 upward correction of a sentence be “so unfair that it must be

deemed inconsistent with fundamental notions of fairness embodied

in the Due Process Clause.” The court provided a non-exhaustive

list to determine when such a case might arise directing

attention “to the lapse of time between the mistake and the

attempted [correction], to whether or not the defendant contributed to the mistake and the reasonableness of his

intervening expectations, to the prejudice worked by a later

change, and to the diligence exercised by the state in seeking

the change.”

Some courts have held, without necessarily invoking due

process or distinguishing between substantive and procedural due

process, that the state cannot impose a sentence in installments

by failing to give a prisoner credit for time while he was

erroneously released from custody. See, e.g., Clark v . Floyd,

7 1 , 374 (9th Cir. 1996); Green v . Christiansen,

(9th Cir. 1984); Shields v . Beto,

(5th

Cir. 1967); White v . Pearlman,

(10th Cir. 1930). In

Martinez, the court explained that whether due process required

that the defendant be credited with the time he was erroneously

at liberty depended on the totality of the circumstances

surrounding the release and in particular on factors such as

whether the mistake was attributable to the defendant, the degree

19 of the authorities’ negligence, and whether the situation created

is fundamentally unfair. 837 F.2d at 864; accord In re

Extradition of Harrison,

, *4-*5 (S.D.N.Y May 2 1 ,

2004). See also Matthews v . Meese,

(8th

Cir. 1987).

In Hawkins v . Freeman, Hawkins sought habeas corpus relief under § 2254 on the grounds that the North Carolina Parole

Commission’s revocation of his parole, after discovering that it

had mistakenly granted him parole twenty months earlier, violated

substantive due process.

. The Fourth Circuit

noted that the circumstances of the Commission’s decision

potentially raised legislative as well as executive action and

analyzed the claim under both analytic frameworks. Id. at 740.

After an exhaustive review of relevant case law, the court

decided that the Commission’s decision was not an abuse of power without any reasonable justification and therefore, did not shock

the conscience. Id. at 746.

The record presented in this case also does not support a

conclusion that the state court’s decision not to credit Sanchez

with the time after he was erroneously released violates

substantive due process. Sanchez was not apparently at fault in

the officers’ initial erroneous decision to release him, and the

officers’ conduct in releasing him, as Sanchez describes i t ,

20 should raise serious concerns in the Hillsborough County

Sheriff’s Department. Thereafter, however, Sanchez did not

attempt to contact the authorities in New Hampshire and assumed a

false identity, which delayed his apprehension under the arrest

warrant that was issued a week after his release. He was soon

arrested in Massachusetts on charges of criminal activity that he committed after his release. Once his true identity was

discovered, he fought extradition to New Hampshire. Based on

these circumstances, the state court’s decision not to grant

Sanchez credit for the time between his release and his return to

New Hampshire is not conscience-shocking.

Assuming, based on First Circuit precedent, that actions by

government officials may violate due process in the absence of

conscience-shocking conduct, such a claim must be based on the

violation of a fundamental right as recognized by the due process clause itself. See Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720-21 (substantive

due process “protects those fundamental rights and liberties

which are, objectively, deeply rooted in this Nation’s history

and tradition”); Brown v . Hot, Sexy & Safer Prods., Inc.,

(1st Cir. 1995); see also Hawkins,

.

Although a prisoner may have a state law or common law

expectation that he will not be forced to serve his sentence in

installments, no court has recognized that expectation as a

21 fundamental right protected by substantive due process. See,

e.g., Dunne,

. The Fourth Circuit concluded

that an asserted right of “a prisoner to remain free on

erroneously granted parole so long as he did not contribute to or

know of the error and has for an appreciable time remained on

good behavior to the point that his expectations for continued freedom from incarceration have ‘crystallized’” was not a

fundamental right for purposes of substantive due process

protection. Hawkins,

.

In the absence of direct guidance from either the Supreme

Court or the First Circuit, this court will not recognize a new

“fundamental right” in the circumstances of this case. See

Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720. The circumstances also do not rise

to the level of conscience-shocking conduct. Therefore, Sanchez

has not demonstrated that he is entitled to habeas relief based on a violation of substantive due process.

Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, the warden’s motion for summary

judgment (document n o . 7 ) is granted. The petitioner’s motion

for summary judgment (document n o . 5 ) is granted as to the first

22 claim seeking credit for 96 days of pretrial confinement and is

otherwise denied.

The clerk of court shall enter judgment accordingly and

close the case.

SO ORDERED.

Joseph A . DiClerico, J r . United States District Judge August 9, 2004

cc: Miguel Sanchez, pro se Susan P. McGinnis, Esquire

23