Sloan v. United States of America

• Court: District Court, W.D. Virginia
• Decided: May 22, 2020
• Docket: 7:20-cv-00292
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA ROANOKE DIVISION

CLAUDE GENE SLOAN, ) ) Petitioner, ) Case No. 7:20CV00292 ) v. ) OPINION AND ORDER ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BOP, ) By: James P. Jones ) United States District Judge Respondents. )

Claude Gene Sloan, Pro Se Petitioner.

The petitioner, Claude Gene Sloan, a federal inmate confined in Kentucky, brings this action as a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. Given the nature of Sloan’s claims, I conclude that the petition is appropriately construed as a second Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Sloan pleaded guilty in this court on August 16, 2018, pursuant to a written Plea Agreement, to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, to manufacturing, and possession with intent to distribute, more than 100 marijuana plants, and to distribution of marijuana. I sentenced Sloan on November 14, 2018, to a total term of 144 months imprisonment. He did not appeal. In February 2019, Sloan filed a § 2255 motion that I denied as lacking merit. United States v. Sloan, No. 2:18CR00004, 2020 WL 1672788 (W.D. Va. Apr. 6, 2020). In the current petition, Sloan contends that I improperly enhanced his sentence based on witnesses’ lies about Sloan being suspected of starting several fires. He

also complains that I called him a pyromaniac, based on these lies, and that the sentence imposed violated the Plea Agreement. As relief, he seeks to be resentenced, consistent with the terms of the Plea Agreement.

A federal inmate may use a § 2241 petition to challenge his sentence as imposed only in limited circumstances. See United States v. Wheeler, 886 F.3d 415, 423–24 (4th Cir. 2018). Because Sloan does not show that his sentence is now fundamentally defective in light of changes to applicable substantive law since his

first § 2255 proceeding, he has not proven jurisdiction to proceed with his claims in a § 2241 petition. Id. at 429. 1 Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the petition is hereby construed as a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence under 28

U.S.C. § 2255 and the Clerk is directed to docket it as such in Case No. 2:18CR00004. This new § 2255 motion will be addressed separately. ENTER: May 22, 2020

/s/ JAMES P. JONES United States District Judge

1 It is also established that a § 2241 petition must be filed in the district in which the prisoner is confined. In re Jones, 226 F.3d 328, 332 (4th Cir. 2000). Sloan is not confined in the Western District of Virginia.