Thomas v. McBride
| Decision Date | 04 May 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:97CV0497 AS.,3:97CV0497 AS. |
| Citation | 3 F.Supp.2d 989 |
| Parties | Larry Dwayne THOMAS, Petitioner, v. Danny McBRIDE, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana |
Larry Dwayne Thomas, Westville, IN, pro se.
Martha J. Arvin, Indianapolis, IN, for Respondent.
On July 30, 1997, pro se petitioner Larry Dwayne Thomas, an Indiana prisoner confined at the Westville Correctional Facility ("WCF"), filed a petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, dealing with the loss of good time credits at a prison disciplinary hearing. The response filed by the Attorney General of Indiana on October 20, 1997, demonstrates the necessary compliance with Lewis v. Faulkner, 689 F.2d 100 (7th Cir.1982). The petitioner filed a Traverse on March 4, 1998, which this court has carefully examined. This court also takes note of its Order of December 5, 1997, and the unverified response by a deputy attorney general thereto on January 27, 1998.
State inmates have a liberty interest in good credit time that cannot be deprived without due process. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); see also Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 487, 115 S.Ct. 2293, 2302, 132 L.Ed.2d 418 (1995) (). Accordingly, Mr. Thomas was entitled to the due process rights enumerated in Wolff v. McDonnell. 418 U.S. at 558-59, 94 S.Ct. at 2975-76. Moreover, the disciplinary committee may not find him guilty without some evidence to support the finding of guilt. Superintendent Mass. Correctional Institution, Walpole v. Hill, 472 U.S. 445, 105 S.Ct. 2768, 86 L.Ed.2d 356 (1985).
In conducting collateral reviews of prison disciplinary hearings under § 2254, this court must examine the disciplinary hearing record for alleged constitutional errors. See Bell v. Duckworth, 861 F.2d 169 (7th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1088, 109 S.Ct. 1552, 103 L.Ed.2d 855 (1989). This court, however, does not sit as a trier de novo or as a court of general common law review when reviewing prison disciplinary proceedings, Cain v. Lane, 857 F.2d 1139, 1145 (7th Cir.1988); Hanrahan v. Lane, 747 F.2d 1137, 1140 (7th Cir.1984), nor does it sit to determine questions of state law. Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 112 S.Ct. 475, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991); Kraushaar v. Flanigan, 45 F.3d 1040 (7th Cir.1995).
The parties' submissions establish that on April 21, 1997, a correctional officer asked the petitioner to provide "a urine sample for analysis on a SUSPICION BASIS." Mr. Thomas provided a sample, which the respondent asserts was tested by the AIT laboratories in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 25, 1997. The sample tested positive for Cannabinoids (THC) in the initial drug screen, IMMUNOASSAY. A second test using the gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GS/MS) method confirmed the positive result.
WCF officials used the positive test result as the basis for a disciplinary conduct report against Mr. Thomas for use of any unauthorized narcotic drug or controlled substance. The conduct report was written on May 6, 1997, and was given to Mr. Thomas on May 9, 1997. Mr. Thomas pled not guilty to the charge, and appeared before the conduct adjustment board ("CAB") on May 13, 1997. At the hearing, Mr. Thomas told the board members that he had been in the same room with other inmates who were smoking marijuana and essentially claimed to be a victim of second hand smoke. The CAB found Mr. Thomas guilty based on the positive test result, demoted him in good time earning classification, and revoked earned good time credits.
Mr. Thomas pursued an administrative appeal, but Indiana Department of Correction ("IDOC") officials affirmed the finding of guilt at every stage of the appeal. After exhausting his administrative remedies, as required by Markham v. Clark, 978 F.2d 993 (7th Cir.1992), Mr. Thomas filed his petition for writ of habeas corpus in this court, asserting that the laboratory computer analysis printout was inadequate (grounds one and two); that the chain of custody of the sample was inadequate (ground three); that WCF officials did not follow the IDOC executive directive on how urine samples are to be collected and processed (grounds four and five); that melanin, the skin pigment that makes skin dark, can mimic THC, causing African-Americans to falsely test positive for use of marijuana (grounds six and seven); that the respondent switched to AIT from another laboratory because the other lab "provided too much accurate information on their computer printout" (ground eight); and that the respondent "has created the type of environment which allows for drug trafficking within the institution" (ground nine).
Mr. Thomas admits that he did not raise grounds four, five, six, and seven in his administrative appeal. Accordingly, he has procedurally defaulted those claims. Markham v. Clark, 978 F.2d at 995-996. Moreover, grounds four and five state no claim upon which relief could be granted because the question in habeas corpus review is whether procedures followed by prison officials comported with requirements of the Federal Constitution or laws, not whether they comport with state law or departmental guidelines, See Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. at 68, 112 S.Ct. at 480; Kraushaar v. Flanigan, 45 F.3d at 1047-49, and the petitioner has submitted nothing that would support the conclusions asserted in grounds six and seven.
Mr. Thomas filed an institutional grievance claiming that respondent McBride created a fertile environment for drug trafficking, as he alleges in ground nine. But a grievance does not constitute fair presentment of an issue to the appropriate prison officials, within the meaning of Markham v. Clark, which requires that Indiana prisoners present their claims to prison officials in the administrative appeals process that "Indiana has established [as] a corrective process for prisoners aggrieved by disciplinary sanctions." Markham v. Clark, 978 F.2d at 995. Moreover, even if this claim had been properly presented in Mr. Thomas's administrative appeal, the court does not believe that it presents a claim cognizable under § 2254.
In grounds one and two, Mr. Thomas asserts that the AIT laboratory computer analysis printout was inadequate, and in ground eight he contends that WCF officials switched to AIT laboratories because the lab they used previously provided too much information on its printout. It does not appear that Mr. Thomas presented the claim that WCF switched labs to avoid accurate reports in his administrative appeal, and he has procedurally defaulted this claim. But even had he not committed procedural default, this ground would state no claim upon which relief can be granted in a § 2254 action.
Mr. Thomas did assert in his administrative appeal that the laboratory report relied on by the CAB did not provide sufficient information, and was inadequate under Federal Rule of Evidence 901. The AIT laboratory report listed several drug classes, each of which is marked as "negative" except for "cannabinoids (THC)," which is marked as "positive." The report also contains other information, such as the "patient's" name, the specimen number, the date the sample was collected, received by the lab, and tested, and the types of tests used to screen the sample and confirm the positive result. Mr. Thomas submits a form from Witham Memorial Hospital Toxicology Laboratory, another lab he asserts has performed testing for the WCF, which provides more information about the chain of custody and shows the initial cutoff in nanograms per milliliter for each drug type. Mr. Thomas suggests that the Witham report form sets the proper standard for reporting positive test results in prison disciplinary proceedings, and that the AIT form is fatally deficient.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, however, do not apply to evidence introduced at prison disciplinary hearings, which are intended to be relatively informal nonadversarial affairs in which the hearing officers normally have no legal training and attorneys do not participate either for the inmate or the state. See Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. at 568-571, 94 S.Ct. at 2980-82. The AIT laboratory report is constitutionally sufficient for the purpose of reporting test results used in prison disciplinary actions.
The centerpiece of Mr. Thomas's petition, and the only claim the court sees as posing a potential violation of the due process guaranteed to him in prison disciplinary hearings involving loss of good time, is the question of the chain of custody of the urine sample that formed the basis of the CAB's finding of guilt. The sample the respondent contends belonged to the petitioner was subjected to a screening test by IMMUNOASSAY with a GC/MS confirming test, which meets the requirements of the due process clause. Wykoff v. Resig, 613 F.Supp. 1504, 1512 (N.D.Ind.1985), aff'd by unpublished order, 819 F.2d 1143 (7th Cir.1987). Moreover, a positive screening test confirmed by GC/MS constitutes "some evidence" to support a finding of guilt. Nelson v. McBride, 912 F.Supp. 403, 407 (N.D.Ind.1996). The only question remaining is whether this petitioner is properly connected with this particular positive sample.
In Wykoff v. Resig, this court held that the sensitive process of taking and testing urine samples must comport with the due process standards defined in Wolff v. McDonnell, and that the handling and processing of inmate urine samples must:
be done in such a way as to insure the basic integrity of the system. An inmate has a legitimate liberty interest in the subject matter and has a right to expect minimal due process safeguards to insure that samples are not mishandled by correctional officers. Given the realities of the correctional setting, these procedures must...
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...a judicial consensus on whether chain-of-custody evidence is necessary to satisfy the "some evidence" standard. See Thomas v. McBride, 3 F. Supp. 2d 989, 993 (N.D. Ind. 1998) (explaining the varying positions taken by federal courts on the chain-of-custody issue).19 More pointedly, there is......