Rosas v. Derr

• Court: District Court, D. Hawaii
• Decided: July 21, 2023
• Docket: 1:23-cv-00176
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF HAWAI‘I LILIANA ROSAS, Case No. 23-cv-00176 DKW-KJM

Petitioner, ORDER DISMISSING PETITION vs. UNDER 28 U.S.C. § 2241 FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS WARDEN ESTELLE DERR,

Respondent.

On April 17, 2023, Liliana Rosas petitioned, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Section 2241, for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to apply 365 days of time credits she allegedly accrued under the First Step Act (FSA) to advance her release date from March 7, 2026 to March 7, 2025. Dkt. No. 1. In response, with supporting evidence, the government asserts that the BOP has done exactly that, such that Rosas’ new projected release date is now March 7, 2025. Dkt. No. 5. In light of the foregoing, the Court finds that this case is moot. Specifically, when a petitioner’s claimed injury cannot be redressed by a favorable decision of the court, a petition for habeas corpus is moot. Burnett v. Lampert, 432 F.3d 996, 1000-01 (9th Cir. 2005). Here, Rosas’ claimed injury was the BOP failing to apply 365 days of time credit to her release date under the FSA. The evidence reflects that Rosas has now received all the time she requested. Dkt. No. 5-2 at 2 (reflecting the application of 365 days of FSA credits to Rosas’ release date, resulting in a projected release date of March 7, 2025); Dkt. No. 5-3 (same).

Moreover, given that Rosas declined to file a timely optional reply, she does not dispute the government’s assertions and evidence in this regard. See Dkt. No. 4 (requiring an optional reply to be filed by July 14, 2023).

Accordingly, based upon the record, the Court finds that Rosas’ alleged injuries have been fully redressed and, thus, this case should be DISMISSED AS MOOT. Cf. Rahman v. Graber, 615 F. App’x 876 (9th Cir. Sep. 2, 2015) (explaining that an appeal was moot after a federal prisoner sought credit towards

his sentence, something that the Bureau of Prisons granted during the pendency of the appeal).1 The Clerk is instructed to CLOSE this case.

IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: July 21, 2023 at Honolulu, Hawai‘i.

1The Court notes that Rosas also failed to administratively exhaust the claims in the instant petition, something that she concedes. Dkt. No. 1 at 3-4. However, because the government (perhaps understandably) only briefly mentions this issue, Dkt. No. 5 at 4 n.2, and the petition is, as discussed, clearly moot, the Court dismisses the same on mootness grounds.