Smith v. Fusimo
Decision Date | 25 January 2022 |
Docket Number | Civil Action 1:22-cv-00089 (UNA) |
Parties | ALVIN DARRELL SMITH, Petitioner, v. J. FUSIMO, Respondent. |
Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
This matter is before the court on its initial review of petitioner's pro se petition for habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (“Pet.”), ECF No. 1, and application for leave to proceed in forma pauperis, ECF No. 2. Petitioner's in forma pauperis application will be granted and his petition will be dismissed without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction.
Petitioner was convicted and sentenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Pet. at 2. He alleges that his sentence has been improperly imposed and calculated and demands his immediate release. See id. at 2, 6, 8-9, 11, 15-16.
First though petitioner has filed this matter pursuant to Section 2254, he seems to primarily challenge the execution and computation of his sentence, rather than his underlying convictions or the legality of his sentence, and “[h]abeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 is the ‘exclusive [federal] avenue available to a District of Columbia prisoner challenging the manner of execution of a sentence, rather than the sentence itself.'” Herndon v. U.S. Parole Comm'n, 961 F.Supp.2d 138, 141 (D.D.C. 2013) (alteration in original) (quoting Perkins v. Henderson, 881 F.Supp.2d 55, 60 (D.D.C. 1995)).
Moreover a petitioner's “immediate custodian” is the proper respondent in a Section 2241 habeas corpus action. See Rumsfield v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426, 434-35 (2004); see also Blair-Bey v. Quick, 151 F.3d 1036 1039 (D.C. Cir. 1998) () (citing Chatman-Bey v. Thornburg, 864 F.2d 804, 810 (D.C. Cir. 1988) (en banc)). Petitioner has properly sued his immediate custodian, see Pet. at 2, however “a district court may not entertain a habeas petition involving present physical custody unless the respondent custodian is within its territorial jurisdiction, ” Stokes v. U.S. Parole Comm'n, 374 F.3d 1235, 1239 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see Day v. Trump, 860 F.3d 686, 691 (D.C. Cir. 2017) ( ). Therefore, to the extent that petitioner challenges the execution of his sentence, he must file this matter in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, as he is currently designated to the United States Penitentiary located in Victorville, California.
D.C. Code § 23-110(g); see also Williams v. Martinez, 586 F.3d 995, 998 (D.C. Cir. 2009); Adams v. Middlebrooks, 810 F.Supp.2d 119, 123-25 (D.D.C. 2011).
While it appears that petitioner may have availed himself to Section 23-110, see Pet. at 9, 11, 16, he has not clearly claimed, let alone shown, that his local remedy is or was inadequate to address his grounds for relief. Petitioner's dissatisfaction that he was unsuccessful in pursuing relief pursuant to Section 23-110 cannot render his local collateral remedy inadequate or ineffective. See Richardson v. United States, 999 F.Supp.2d 44, 47-8 (D.D.C. 2013) (citing Garris, 794 F.2d at 727) (other citation omitted); see also Plummer v. Fenty 321 F. App'x. 7, 8 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (); Hatch v. Jett, 847 F.Supp.2d 88, 92 (D.D.C. 2012) (...
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