Blankenship v. Dugger

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court denied Joseph C. Blankenship's petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the application of administrative gain-time statutes to him. The court held that section 944.598 had never been implemented and therefore created no entitlement or liberty interest, while section 944.276 did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause or due process protections.

Holdings

1. Section 944.276 did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause because section 944.598 was never implemented and therefore did not create a right to administrative gain time that section 944.276 could take away.
2. The administrative gain-time provisions at issue were procedural and did not create substantive rights to gain time based on the possibility that prison overcrowding would trigger their operation.
3. Section 944.598 did not create a protected liberty interest because it was never implemented, and Blankenship had no right to require its implementation.
4. Blankenship could not claim a liberty interest under section 944.276 because the statute expressly excluded inmates convicted of sexual battery and other specified offenses.

Questions Presented

1. Whether application of Florida Statutes section 944.276 to a prisoner whose crimes predated its enactment violated the Ex Post Facto Clause.
2. Whether section 944.598 created a protected right to administrative gain time even though the statute was never implemented.
3. Whether the Department of Corrections' implementation of section 944.276 rather than section 944.598 deprived Blankenship of a protected liberty interest without due process of law.

Disposition

writ_denied