United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit 

Chicago, Illinois 60604 

Submitted January 27, 2021*

Decided February 1, 2021 

Before 

MICHAEL B. BRENNAN, Circuit Judge 

MICHAEL Y. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge 

AMY J. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge

No. 20-1915 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

 

v. 

ALBERT L. RICHARDSON, JR., 

 Defendant-Appellant.

 Appeal from the United States District 

Court for the Southern District of Illinois 

No. 92–cr-30116-SMY 

Staci M. Yandle, 

Judge. 

O R D E R 

Albert Richardson appeals the district court’s order denying his petition for a 

writ of coram nobis. We affirm. 

The procedural history of Richardson’s criminal proceedings is familiar to the 

parties and need not be discussed at length. Richardson pleaded guilty in 1992 to 

*

 We have agreed to decide this case without oral argument because the briefs 

and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would 

not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). 

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION 

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 
No. 20-1915 Page 2 

conspiring to distribute crack cocaine and completed his sentence for that conviction in 

2002. He later served time on another federal conviction, and in 2019 he was convicted 

of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment. 

While serving this sentence, Richardson filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis

with the district court that presided over his 1992 conviction, arguing that sentencing 

errors in that case led to an undue sentence enhancement for his current conviction. The 

court construed Richardson’s filing as a motion for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and 

denied it because he was no longer “in custody” for that conviction. 

As an initial matter, the district court should have construed Richardson’s filing 

as it was labeled: a petition for a writ of coram nobis. “[C]oram nobis provides a way to 

collaterally attack a criminal conviction for a person . . . who is no longer ‘in custody’ 

and therefore cannot seek habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.” Chaidez v. United States, 

568 U.S. 342, 345 n.1 (2013). Richardson’s case meets this criterion: he is challenging the 

sentence for his 1992 conviction that he already served. 

Even so, Richardson is not entitled to relief. A writ of coram nobis is “to be used 

only in extraordinary cases” where it is necessary “to achieve justice.” United States v. 

Delhorno, 915 F.3d 449, 452–53 (7th Cir. 2019). It is available only when (1) there is an 

error so fundamental as to render the conviction invalid, (2) there are sound reasons for 

the petitioner’s failure to seek relief earlier, and (3) the defendant continues to suffer 

from his conviction. Id. at 453. Richardson cannot satisfy the first element. He mounts 

no meaningful challenge to his 1992 conviction; he challenges only the lawfulness of the 

resulting sentence. An error in a defendant’s sentence is not so “fundamental” as to 

render the conviction itself “invalid.” United States v. Wilkozek, 822 F.3d 364, 369 (7th Cir. 

2016) (alleged error in defendant’s sentence is not fundamental because it “doesn’t cast 

doubt on [the defendant’s] guilt”). Because Richardson cannot meet the first element, 

we need not address the remaining two elements. 

AFFIRMED