IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

RALPH EUGENE TRAVIS,

Petitioner,

v. Case No. 24-CV-070-JFH-JAR

SEMINOLE NATION TRIBAL COURT,

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER

Petitioner Ralph Eugene Travis (“Travis”), a pro se prisoner who is incarcerated at the Pottawatomie County Jail in Shawnee, Oklahoma, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to

. Dkt. No. 1. He claims he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in Seminole Nation Tribal Court Case Nos. CF-2022-58 and CF-2022-26.

. He raises one ground for relief, claiming his sentence subjects him to illegal housing that violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Travis alleges the following supporting facts: Sentenced to 3 years in a facility with no outdoor recreation, no Native American religious practices, horrible temporary medical care, no access to [the] Seminole Nation law library, [and] no access to courts, certified mail or notary for indigent inmates. 3 people in one small cramped cell fit for 2. No long-term holding facility to safely or constitutionally house inmates long-term.

. The Court has carefully reviewed the record and construes Travis’s pleadings liberally. Haines v. Kerner,

(1972). This relaxed standard, however, does not relieve his burden of alleging sufficient facts on which a recognized legal claim could be based. Hall v. Bellmon,

(10th Cir. 1991). The Court finds that Travis has improperly presented his claims in a habeas corpus petition pursuant to

. A § 2254 petition challenges the validity of a state conviction or sentence. Montez v. McKinna,

(10th Cir. 2000). Here, Travis is challenging the conditions of his confinement in the Pottawatomie County Jail, not the validity of his tribal- court sentence.! Therefore, this petition must be dismissed for Travis’s failure to state a claim for habeas corpus relief. Travis may raise his Eighth Amendment claims regarding the conditions of his confinement in a new civil rights complaint pursuant to

. He must, however, file the complaint in the federal district where the defendants reside or where the alleged constitutional violations have occurred. See

(b)(1)-(2). The Pottawatomie County Jail is located in within the territorial jurisdiction of the Western District of Oklahoma. See

(c). Therefore, Travis may file a civil rights complaint in the Western District. Forms for filing a pro se prisoner civil rights complaint in the Western District are available at https://www.okwd.uscourts.gov or from the Clerk of the Western District Court. IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that this action is dismissed for failure to state a claim for habeas corpus relief. Dated this 2°¢ day of August 2024. C | td tL2wW JOHN F. HFIL, Il UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

' Tf Petitioner were challenging the validity of his tribal-court conviction or sentence, it would be examined under

(“The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall be available to any person, in a court of the United States, to test the legality of his detention by order of an Indian tribe.”).