We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR 2255 SAVING CLAUSE ARGUMENT

Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the reach of 28 USC § 2255(e), the so-called saving clause.

In Jones v. Hendrix, the high court will consider whether a prisoner may use a 28 USC § 2241 habeas corpus petition to make a Rehaif claim – that he did not know he was subject to the proscription on possessing a gun or ammo – where he could have made the claim in a § 2255 motion years ago.

At least two circuits hold that where the issues could have been raised in the § 2255 motion – even though raising it would have been futile because Circuit precedent was totally against the argument – the saving clause will not let the prisoner file a § 2241 petition.

SCOTUSBlog said last week, “one suspects that the conservatives who joined the Rehaif majority… may nonetheless be open to concluding that prisoners like Jones cannot reap the benefit of their ruling. With rare exceptions, the court’s conservative majority has exalted finality over the fairness of individual proceedings – and did so long before the current 6-3 supermajority (as Justice Harry Blackmun noted in a dissent more than 30 years ago, “one searches the majority’s opinion in vain… for any mention of petitioner[]’s right to a criminal proceeding free from constitutional defect”). And though it will mean that defendants like Jones continue to serve time in prison for conduct that the court has said is not criminal, AEDPA’s bar on second or successive petitions provides a vehicle for that result. This car is good for just one ride.”

SCOTUSBlog, On the narrow road to challenge a federal conviction, when is a vehicle “inadequate”? (October 28, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root