SYLLABUS
As a
matter of first impression, an inmate's timely attempt to
exhaust administrative remedies remains pending and does not
become final for purposes of calculating the 30-day deadline
for filing a K.S.A. 60-1501 petition with the district court,
until the inmate receives actual notice of the final
administrative decision.
Appeal
from Reno District Court; Joseph L. McCarville III, judge.
Shannon S. Crane, of Hutchinson, for appellant, and James
Jamerson, appellant pro se.
Jon D.
Graves, legal counsel, of Kansas Department of Corrections,
for appellees.
Before
Standridge, P.J., Pierron and Atcheson, JJ.
Standridge, J.
James
Jamerson, an inmate confined at the Hutchinson Correctional
Facility, appeals from the district court's decision to
dismiss his K.S.A. 60-1501 petition based on his failure to
timely exhaust administrative remedies. For the reasons
stated below, we find Jamerson sufficiently alleged he both
exhausted his administrative remedies and timely filed his
petition for relief after exhaustion. As such, we reverse the
district court's decision and remand for further
proceedings.
Factual
and Procedural History
In
2001, Jamerson pled no contest to second-degree murder,
aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit aggravated
robbery. The district court sentenced Jamerson to a total of
288 months in prison.
In
January 2016, the district court recalculated Jamerson's
criminal history score and resentenced him using the new
score.
In
February 2016, after he was resentenced, the KDOC
unilaterally (without a hearing) took away Jamerson's
good time credits, withholding 193 days and deeming 145 days
to have been forfeited by Jamerson.
In May
2016, Jamerson filed a K.S.A. 60-1501 petition challenging
the KDOC's February 2016 good time credit decision (2016
habeas petition).
In June
2016, the district court summarily denied the 2016 habeas
petition, finding Jamerson had failed to allege sufficient
facts in his petition to establish error in the ...