Opinion
Case Number: 00 C 50357
July 11, 2001
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Petitioner, Arthur Reid, a state prisoner filed in this court a petition for writ of mandamus or alternatively for a supervisory order claiming he is entitled to good time credits on his state sentence. This court treated the petition as a habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The respondent, Donald N. Snyder, Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, has filed a motion to dismiss contending Reid failed to exhaust available state remedies before proceeding to Federal Court. Reid has responded that he has exhausted his state remedy when he requested relief and was denied it from the judge in the criminal case who sentenced him and was denied leave to file a petition for an original writ of mandamus or for a supervisory order by the Illinois Supreme Court.
An action for mandamus in the Illinois Circuit Court is the procedure for remedying the denial of good time credits. See McAtee v. Cowan, 250 F.3d 506, 508 (7th Cir. 2001). Merely asking the sentencing judge for relief and then petitioning the Illinois Supreme Court to seek leave to file for an original writ of mandamus or for a supervisory order did not properly exhaust state remedies. The case is dismissed without prejudice.Id. at 509.