Hughes

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Petitioner is a federal prisoner who is currently serving a twenty year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville, California, having been convicted of Interference with Commerce by Threat or Violence, 18 U.S.C. § 1951 , in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island in 1998. On May 30, 2003, he filed this petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 , challenging the United States Bureau of Prisons’ denial of sentence credit for time served in a Mexican jail while awaiting extradition to the United States. The underlying facts are as follows.

In February 1994, Petitioner and a business associate, Brian McCarthy, traveled to Mexico, ostensibly to conduct business on behalf of Automation Software, Inc [“ASI”], a company based in Rhode Island, of which both men were officers. On February 8, 1994, Petitioner returned to ASI’s office in the United States with what he claimed was a “ransom” demand. Peti tioner told company officials that McCarthy had been abducted in Mexico on February 6, 1994. He informed them…