Austin v. Pazera

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant-prisoner’s habeas petition alleging that prison officials denied him due process by convicting him on charge of attempted trafficking of tobacco and taking away good-conduct credits on basis of insufficient evidence. Record showed that tobacco was found in crawl space of prison where defendant and four other prisoners worked, and prison officials presented no other evidence to indicate that defendant, as opposed to any of his four co-workers, had placed tobacco in crawl space. As such, instant 80 percent probability that defendant was innocent was insufficient to support prison officials' determination that defendant had either actual or constructive possession of tobacco.