IN RE: JOSEPH SCOTT (2017)

OPINION*

Joseph Scott, a federal inmate currently incarcerated at FCI-Fairton, filed this mandamus petition on February 16, 2017, claiming that the District Court has failed to timely rule on his motion for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). Scott filed the § 3582(c) motion six months earlier. After Scott filed his mandamus petition, the District Court ordered the Government to respond to Scott's § 3582(c)(2) motion by March 27, 2017, and permitted Scott time after that in which to file a reply.

In light of the above, we cannot conclude that the District Court's delay in adjudicating Scott's § 3582(c)(2) motion is “tantamount to a failure to exercise jurisdiction,” Madden v. Myers, 102 F.3d 74, 79 (3d Cir. 1996), such that mandamus relief may be appropriate. Accordingly, the mandamus petition is denied.¹ This denial is without prejudice to Scott's filing a new mandamus petition should the District Court fail to act on his § 3582(c)(2) motion within a reasonable time.

FOOTNOTES

1.   The petition is also denied to the extent Scott requests that we order his “immediate release” pending disposition of his § 3582(c)(2) motion. See Hollingsworth v. Perry, 558 U.S. 183, 190 (2010) (per curiam) (explaining that a mandamus petitioner must show, inter alia, that “no other adequate means [exist] to attain the relief he desires”); cf. Fed. R. App. P. 9(b); Landano v. Rafferty, 970 F.2d 1230, 1239 (3d Cir. 1992).

PER CURIAM