Johnson, Shawn v. Finnan, Alan

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

Disciplinary panels in state prisons are not courts. White v. Indiana Parole Board, 266 F.3d 759, 765-66 (7th Cir.2001). From this it follows that facts found (or assumed) by a prison disciplinary board are not entitled to the presumption of correctness that 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e) affords to judicial findings. Piggie v. McBride, 277 F.3d 922, 925 (7th Cir.2002). This means, in turn, that when a prisoner who seeks a writ of habeas corpus provides competent evidence (such as an affidavit by someone with personal knowledge of the events) contradicting an assertion by the…