A rare (and interesting) federal parole decision from the Third Circuit

Though the Sentencing Reform Act 1984 abolished parole for the federal system nearly a quarter century ago, there are still some folks in federal prison serving parole-eligible sentences.  One such federal prisoner lost an appeal today in the Third Circuit in Furnari v. US Parole Commission, No. 07-2853 (3d Cir. July 9, 2008) (available here).  Here is how the opinion begins:

On February 15, 2006, appellant Christopher Furnari filed a habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the District Court claiming that the United States Parole Commission (“Parole Commission”) improperly had denied him parole. Furnari is serving a pre-Sentencing Guidelines 100-year sentence (five consecutive 20-year sentences) for RICO and Hobbs Act convictions related to extortion and racketeering. Since the start of his incarceration the Parole Commission has granted Furnari five parole hearings but has not ordered him paroled either at the time of its decision or on some future date. Furnari claims that the Parole Commission has based its denial of parole on an improper calculation of his offense severity rating and has failed to consider mitigating factors in his favor.  On June 20, 2007, the District Court denied Furnari’s petition and, on the next day, Furnari filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court.