DeVante Davis v. Warden

Summary

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania dismissed DeVante Davis’s 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition challenging the Bureau of Prisons’ denial of a sentence reduction for completing the Residential Drug Abuse Program. The court held that Davis’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm disqualified him from the reduction under 28 C.F.R. § 550.55(b), and that the denial did not depend on classifying his offense as a crime of violence.

Holdings

1. Davis was not entitled to habeas relief because his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm disqualified him from an RDAP sentence reduction under the applicable regulation.
2. The record did not show that the BOP classified Davis's conviction as a crime of violence; the BOP instead relied on the firearm-based exclusion in the current version of 28 C.F.R. § 550.55(b).

Questions Presented

1. Whether Davis was entitled to habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 based on the Bureau of Prisons' denial of an RDAP sentence reduction.
2. Whether a felony conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm disqualifies an inmate from an RDAP sentence reduction under 28 C.F.R. § 550.55(b)(5)(ii).
3. Whether the Bureau of Prisons denied the reduction by improperly classifying Davis's offense as a crime of violence.

Disposition

dismissed