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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE OCTOBER 1997 SESSION

FILED
December 18, 1997 Cecil Crowson, Jr.
Appellate C ourt Clerk

DAVID ELZEY, Appellant, VS. STATE OF TENNESSEE, Appellee.

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C.C.A. # 03C01-9703-CR-00097 JOHNSON COUNTY Hon. Lynn Brown, Judge (Habeas Corpus)

For Appellant: David Elzey, Pro Se NECC # 10095 P.O. Box 5000 Mountain City, TN 37683

For Appellee: John Knox Walkup Attorney General and Reporter Peter M. Coughlan Assistant Attorney General 425 Fifth Avenue North Second Floor, Cordell Hull Building Nashville, TN 37243-0493 David E. Crockett District Attorney General Route 19, Box 99 Johnson City, TN 37601

OPINION FILED:_____________________

AFFIRMED

GARY R. WADE, JUDGE

OPINION The petitioner, David Elzey, filed a petition for habeas corpus relief which was denied by the trial court. In this appeal of right, the petitioner complains that an extension of his release eligibility date by twenty percent pursuant to the policy 502.02 of the Department of Correction constituted cruel and unusual punishment contrary to the state and federal constitutions, a violation of the ex post facto clause of the state and federal constitutions, and an unauthorized exercise of administrative authority.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The petitioner has alleged that he was convicted on August 1, 1988, of six separate crimes occurring in Hardin County and on September 1, 1988, of one crime in Tipton County. He concedes that on June 4, 1990, while lawfully incarcerated, he escaped from the Turney Center prison facility in Only, Tennessee, and was apprehended the next day. Because of the escape, the Department of Correction increased his release eligibility date under his original sentences by twenty percent.

In this state, a writ of habeas corpus may be granted only when a petitioner has established lack of jurisdiction for the order of confinement or that he is otherwise entitled to immediate release because of the expiration of his sentence. See Ussery v. Avery, 432 S.W.2d 656 (Tenn. 1968); State ex rel. Wade v. Norvell, 443 S.W.2d 839 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1969). A "person imprisoned or restrained of his liberty, under any pretense whatsoever, ... may prosecute a writ of habeas corpus, to inquire into the cause of such imprisonment...." Tenn. Code Ann.

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