Source: https://postconviction.org/federal/
Timestamp: 2020-08-14 22:24:17
Document Index: 164202120

Matched Legal Cases: ['§2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2254', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2255', '§ 2241']

FEDERAL – NATIONAL POST-CONVICTION PROJECT
We offer assistance with all federal (§2255) post-conviction motions, coram nobis, drugs-minus-two motions and all other federal post-conviction remedies. We also offer assistance with post-conviction DNA procedures. The National Post-Conviction Project is familiar with practice and procedure in all federal district courts, court of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. We have included several self-help manuals from select jurisdictions. While the rules vary slightly (check the rules for your federal district), the following should provide insight into pro se 2255 practice and procedure:
PRO SE GUIDEBOOK FOR MOTIONS FILED UNDER 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (U.S. DISTRICT COURT OF MINNESOTA)
PRO SE GUIDEBOOK FOR MOTIONS FILED UNDER 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (U.S. DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY)
FEDERAL FORMS FOR ALL DISTRICTS
FEDERAL COURTS OF APPEAL, DISTRICT COURTS AND RELATED LINKS
GENERAL 2255 FORM
The motion to vacate, set aside or correct a sentence provided by 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is a modern descendant of the common law petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It is available only to people convicted in federal courts who are in custody. (The corresponding federal post-conviction tool for state prisoners is the habeas petition governed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254.) The § 2255 motion is the post-conviction tool most federal prisoners turn to after they have exhausted their appeals. When it is used effectively, it can be a powerful tool to right injustices that were not or could not have been raised on direct appeal. This is because it gives courts broad discretion in fashioning appropriate relief, including dismissal of all charges and release of the prisoner, retrial, or re-sentencing.
This harsh rule is tempered slightly by the fact that it applies only to motions which attack the judgment that a defendant has previously moved pursuant to § 2255 to vacate. Defendants may file one § 2255 motion as of right for each judgment of conviction and sentence. For example, if a defendant’s conviction is vacated as a result of a § 2255 motion, he receives a new trial and is convicted and sentenced again (or simply re-sentenced), he may file a § 2255 motion to challenge that new judgment without receiving permission from the Court of Appeals.
If a defendant wants to file a second § 2255 motion attacking the same judgment, his or her options are severely limited. The newly discovered evidence ground, for example, applies only to newly discovered evidence which establishes a defendant’s factual innocence. It does not, for example, apply to evidence which, had it been known prior to sentencing, would have resulted in a shorter term of imprisonment. Nor would it apply to newly discovered evidence which, if it had been introduced at trial, might have engendered a reasonable doubt. The evidence must be such that had it be introduced, “no reasonable fact finder would have found the movant guilty of the offense.”
An alternative to a 2255 motion may be possible under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in very limited circumstances. You may be able to use this remedy if you are a federal prisoner and you wish to challenge the way your sentence is being carried out (for example, you claim that the Bureau of Prisons miscalculated your sentence or failed to properly award good time credits); you are in federal or state custody because of something other than a judgment of conviction (for example, you are in pretrial detention or are awaiting extradition); or you are alleging that you are illegally detained in immigration custody. There are other limited exceptions as well.
Whether you are a defendant, attorney, inmate, family or friend, the National Post-Conviction Project can provide you with the post-conviction help that you need.