Vernon W. Mauldin v. Tennessee Department of Correction

This appeal involves a state prisoner's efforts to obtain judicial review of the length of his incarceration. The prisoner contends that he is entitled to the benefit of the 1989 Sentencing Reform Act’s lesser sentence for armed robbery rather than the sentence imposed upon him at the time of his conviction in 1985. He also contends he is entitled, as a matter of law, to certain sentence reduction credits. Finally, he contends that, taken together, the downward adjustments of his sentence on the basis of these two contentions would entitle him to be immediately released from custody. He filed a Petition for Declaratory Order with the Department of Correction, and the Department denied him relief. Thereafter, the prisoner filed a pro se "Petition for Judicial Review and/or Petition for a Declaratory Judgment and/or Petition for Common-law Writ of Certiorari" in the Chancery Court of Davidson County. The trial court granted the Department's motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12.02(6) of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. We affirm the dismissal of the prisoner's petition because it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.