United States v. Logan

22 F. Supp. 2d 691, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16175, 1998 WL 723527
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedOctober 15, 1998
Docket1:95 CR 70-07
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 22 F. Supp. 2d 691 (United States v. Logan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Logan, 22 F. Supp. 2d 691, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16175, 1998 WL 723527 (W.D. Mich. 1998).

Opinion

FINAL ORDER

ENSLEN, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendant’s Motion for Relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2255, Writ of Audita Quere-la, and/or Writ of Coram Nobis, filed on February 10, 1998. Defendant Brian Logan pled guilty on November 30, 1995, to Count One of the Superseding Information, charging him with Interstate Transportation in Aid of Racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a). On March 27, 1996, the Court sentenced defendant to 60 Months incarceration, followed by a three-year term of supervised release, and a $50 special assessment. Defendant did not file a direct appeal. Consequently, the Court’s judgment became final no later than April 6, 1996. Nearly two years later, on February 10, 1998, Defendant filed the instant motion for relief. Upon review, the Court denies Defendant’s motion.

Section 2255

Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), Pub.L. 104-132,110 Stat. 1214, a one-year statute of limitations applies to motions for relief from a sentence imposed by a federal court. 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Typically, this period will run from “the date on which the judgment of conviction becomes final.” Id. As noted above, here, the judgment became final no later than April 6, 1996, and the motion was filed on February 10, 1998. On its face, Defendant’s motion appears time-barred. Defendant contends that this amendment to § 2255 constitutionally may not be applied to him, however, because his conviction became final before the amendment went into effect on April 23,1996.

Logan argues that the Sixth Circuit’s ruling in In re Hanserd, 123 F.3d 922 (6th Cir.1997), bars this Court from applying the gatekeeping provisions of the AEDPA to his petition. In Hanserd, a federal prisoner requested permission to file a second motion to vacate his sentence pursuant to § 2255. Id. at 922. As described in a subsequent case, “[t]he specific problem was whether a legiti *693 mate claim brought pursuant to Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 116 S.Ct. 501, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995), could be brought before the federal courts when the movant had already presented a pre-AEDPA, pre- Bailey motion to vacate under § 2255[.]” In re Sonshine, 132 F.3d 1133, 1135 (6th Cir.1997). The Sonshine court noted that “while Hanserd is not strictly limited to claims aids-ing under Bailey, apart from that class of claims, there will be few other cases, ... on which the gatekeeping requirement of the AEDPA will thus have an impermissibly retroactive effect.” Id.

The Defendant’s concern regarding retroactivity is further assuaged, and in fact resolved in its entirety, by the holdings of many circuits creating a “grace period” of one year after the passage of the AEDPA within which a motion may be filed. Thus, “[n]o petition filed on or before April 23, 1997 — one year from the date of AEDPA’s enactment — may be dismissed for failure to comply with [section 2255’s] time limit.” Calderon v. United States Dist. Ct., 128 F.3d 1283, 1287 (9th Cir.1997); accord Brown v. Angelone, 150 F.3d 370, 376 (4th Cir.1998). Here, the Defendant filed his motion after this one-year grace period had expired. His motion, therefore, is untimely under § 2255.

Section 2241

Defendant also seeks relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241. “In general, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under § 2241 is reserved for a challenge to the manner in which a sentence is executed, rather than the validity of the sentence itself.” Capaldi v. Pontesso, 135 F.3d 1122, 1123 (6th Cir.1998) (quoting United States v. Jalili, 925 F.2d 889, 893 (6th Cir.1991)). Moreover, such a petition may only be filed in the district of incarceration. Jalili, 925 F.2d at 893-94. Since Logan challenges the validity of his conviction rather than the execution of his sentence, and since he is incarcerated in Pennsylvania, relief under the statute is unavailable to him.

Even if these barriers were not in place, however, there exists a further limitation on § 2241 petitions. A petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 may be brought only when the § 2255 remedy is “inadequate or ineffective.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255. However, such inadequacy or ineffectiveness cannot be established “merely because [the] petitioner is unable to meet the stringent gatekeeping requirements of the amended § 2255. Such a holding would effectively eviscerate Congress’s intent in amending § 2255.” In re Dorsainvil, 119 F.3d 245, 251 (3rd Cir.1997). See also In re Vial, 115 F.3d 1192, 1194 n. 5 (4th Cir.1997) (en banc) (“[T]he remedy afforded by § 2255 is not rendered inadequate or ineffective merely because an individual has been unable to obtain relief under that provision, or because an individual is procedurally barred from filing a § 2255 motion.”). Courts permitting recourse to § 2241 have found strong underlying bases for inadequacy. In particular, successive petitions have been permitted where a Supreme Court decision, 1 issued subsequent to resolution of the initial petition, has determined that actions formerly believed to be criminal are, in fact, legally blameless. See, e.g., Dorsainvil; In re Hanserd, 123 F.3d 922 (6th Cir.1997); Triestman v. United States, 124 F.3d 361 (2nd Cir.1997). In such a circumstance, the absence of a remedy would raise “serious constitutional questions.” Triestman, 124 F.3d at 378-79; see also In re Sonshine, 132 F.3d 1133, 1135 (6th Cir.1997).

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Bluebook (online)
22 F. Supp. 2d 691, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16175, 1998 WL 723527, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-logan-miwd-1998.