Jefferson v. Williams

CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 2, 2022
Docket3:20-cv-00595
StatusUnknown

This text of Jefferson v. Williams (Jefferson v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jefferson v. Williams, (S.D. Ill. 2022).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

ROBERT JEFFERSON, ) ) Petitioner, ) vs. ) Case No. 20-cv-595-DWD ) E. WILLIAMS, ) ) Respondent. )

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DUGAN, District Judge:

Now before the Court is Petitioner Robert G. Jefferson’s pro se Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Doc. 1). Background1 On August 5, 1998, a jury found Petitioner guilty on 25 counts of a Third Superseding Indictment, including for the murders of Londwea Brown and five young children, running a continuing criminal enterprise (“CCE”), drug conspiracy, various drug charges, and as a felon in possession of a firearm. See Jefferson v. United States, Nos.

1The documents from Petitioner’s criminal case records are largely unavailable electronically. However, the Court has reviewed the portions of the record submitted by the parties, in addition to the available records in United States v. Jefferson, Case No. 97-276-2-MJD (D. Minn). The Court has further reviewed the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision affirming Petitioner’s convictions and sentence, see United States v. Jefferson, 215 F.3d 820, 823 (8th Cir. 2000), and the District Court’s orders denying Petitioner’s motions for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c). See Jefferson v. United States, Nos. CR 97-276(2), Civ. 01-1821, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25370, *2 (D. Minn. Dec. 3, 2002) (order denying Petitioner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion); United States v. Jefferson, No. CR 97-276 (2) (MJD), 2021 WL 2143478, at *1 (D. Minn. May 26, 2021), (order denying Petitioner’s Motion for Sentence Reduction), reconsideration denied, No. CR 97-276 (2) (MJD), United States v. Jefferson, No. CR 97-276 (2) (MJD), 2021 WL 3472650 (D. Minn. Aug. 6, 2021). The Court is entitled to take judicial notice of these court documents. See Keller v. Walton, No. 14-CV-594-DRH, 2014 WL 2861547, at *1 (S.D. Ill. June 24, 2014), aff'd (July 30, 2015) (district courts may judicially notice public records available on Public Access to Court Electronic Records (“PACER”) and other court documents to determine petitioner’s criminal and litigation history) (citing Bova v. U.S. Bank, N.A., 446 F. Supp. 2d 926, 930 n.2 (S.D. Ill. 2006) and Henson v. CSC Credit Servs., 29 F.3d 280, 284 (7th Cir. 1994)). CR 97-276(2), Civ. 01-1821, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25370, *2 (D. Minn. Dec. 3, 2002) (order denying Petitioner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion). Petitioner was sentenced to life

imprisonment on the CCE and murder counts. Jefferson, 2021 WL 2143478, at *1 (order denying Petitioner’s Motion for Sentence Reduction). Petitioner was also convicted of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), for which he was sentenced to 10-years. Jefferson, 2021 WL 2143478, at *3. His convictions and sentence were affirmed. Jefferson, 215 F.3d at 823. Here, Petitioner only challenges his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (Doc.

1). Petitioner does not challenge the remaining counts of his conviction. Petitioner invokes Rehaif v. United States, __ U.S. __, 139 S. Ct. 2191 (2019), as the basis for his collateral attack, and argues that the Government failed to prove that he knew he belonged to the category of persons (those with a prior felony conviction) who were prohibited from possessing a firearm, at the time he possessed a firearm (Doc. 1).

Petitioner argues generally that he is entitled to relief because his charging indictment and corresponding jury instructions did not specify a “status” element (Doc. 1, p. 10). Respondent answered the Petition (Doc. 10), to which Petitioner replied (Doc. 12). Respondent also filed supplemental authority (Doc. 13), to which Petitioner responded (Doc. 14).

Discussion Typically, petitions for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 may not be used to raise claims of legal error in conviction or sentencing; they may only challenge the execution of a sentence. Valona v. United States, 138 F.3d 693, 694 (7th Cir. 1998). Thus, aside from the direct appeal process, a prisoner who has been convicted in federal court is usually limited to challenging his conviction and sentence by bringing a motion

pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 in the court which sentenced him. Kramer v. Olson, 347 F.3d 214, 217 (7th Cir. 2003). A prisoner may only challenge his federal conviction or sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in very limited circumstances, such as the “saving clause” of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), which authorizes a federal prisoner to file a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition where the remedy under § 2255 is “inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e); United States v. Prevatte, 300 F.3d 792, 798–99 (7th Cir.

2002). Section 2255 relief is inadequate “when it is so configured as to deny a convicted defendant any opportunity for judicial rectification of so fundamental a defect in his conviction as having been imprisoned for a nonexistent offense.” In re Davenport, 147 F.3d 605, 611 (7th Cir. 1998) (emphasis in original). Therefore, before relief under § 2241

becomes available, Petitioner must demonstrate the inability of a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to cure the alleged defect in their conviction because of a structural problem inherent in § 2255. See Webster v. Daniels, 784 F.3d 1123, 1136 (7th Cir. 2015) (Petitioner must show “something more than a lack of success with a section 2255 motion” before the saving clause is satisfied). Following Davenport and its progeny, the Seventh Circuit has

developed a three-part test for determining whether § 2255 is inadequate or ineffective so to trigger the saving clause: 1.

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Jefferson v. Williams, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jefferson-v-williams-ilsd-2022.