MARK A. KEARNEY, District Judge.
A citizen who admittedly violated the terms of his supervised release resulting in our sentence of fifteen months of federal incarceration to run concurrent with his state court sentence beginning on date certain now brings a writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at the hearing on revoking supervised release and challenging the legality of his partially concurrent sentence. His lawyer argued for a concurrent sentence rather than a consecutive sentence permitted by Congress. To allow the citizen the ability to fully participate in the state prison's vocational training, we entered a concurrent sentence beginning on the first day on which he may be eligible for state parole based on his lawyer's argument the state prison would not parole him with a pending federal detainer. All good, until the state Parole Board granted parole less than a month into our concurrent sentence. The citizen now wants a new sentence arguing his lawyer provided ineffective assistance of counsel and our partially concurrent sentence (in lieu of a fully consecutive sentence) is illegal. His pro se habeas petition, while cogently presented, lacks merit. We deny the motion for the reasons which follow.
Leon Glaspie plead guilty to one count of escape in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 751(a) on August 26, 2009.
At the revocation hearing, Mr. Glaspie's counsel, Mark Wilson, argued for Mr. Glaspie's federal sentence to run concurrently with his state sentence. We could have imposed a sentence entirely consecutive to the state court sentence. Attorney Wilson sought a concurrent sentence. He argued if we did not give Mr. Glaspie a fully concurrent sentence which would begin on the date of the hearing, we should give Mr. Glaspie a partially concurrent sentence which would begin on May 27, 2018, the first day when Mr. Glaspie became eligible for state parole.
Despite the federal detainer, the state Parole Board granted Mr. Glaspie parole on June 18, 2018.
Mr. Glaspie makes two claims in his habeas petition challenging his sentence. Mr. Glaspie argues Attorney Wilson rendered ineffective of assistance of counsel by "fail[ing] to object or appeal my illegal sentence and prevented me from getting a fully concurrent." Mr. Glaspie also argues his sentence exceeds the statutory maximum and is illegal. Both claims fail.
Mr. Glaspie argues Attorney Wilson failed to object or appeal his illegal sentence and prevented Mr. Glaspie from getting a fully concurrent sentence. We reject this argument.
To prevail on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, Mr. Glaspie must first show Mr. Wilson's actions fell "outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance."
Mr. Glaspie's ineffective assistance claim fails. Under the sentencing guidelines, we could have sentenced Mr. Glaspie to a sentence entirely consecutive to the state court sentence, partially concurrent or fully concurrent.
Mr. Glaspie next argues his sentence exceeds what Congress allows under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(h). Mr. Glaspie is incorrect. Congress allows judges to impose a term of supervised release following revocation which "shall not exceed the term of supervised release authorized by statute for the offense that resulted in the original term of supervised release, less any term of imprisonment that was imposed upon revocation of supervised release."
On November 20, 2017, we imposed a term of fifteen months to run concurrent with Mr. Glaspie's then existing state court sentence of imprisonment to be followed by twelve months of supervised release.
Mr. Glaspie's claims of ineffective assistance and illegality of his sentence fail. We deny his petition for habeas corpus in the accompanying Order. We also deny a certificate of appealability as Mr. Bennet has neither shown denial of a federal constitutional right nor has he established reasonable jurists would debate the correctness of this Court's ruling.