Opinion ID: 745407
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The New Law

Text: 17 The AEDPA standard would not allow such a § 2255 motion. Under the new law a prisoner may file a second § 2255 motion only if the appropriate court of appeals certifies the motion either to contain newly discovered exculpatory evidence or to be based on a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable. 28 U.S.C. § 2255(1), (2). 11 There is no newly discovered evidence in this case, and Hanserd does not claim that there is. Hanserd does argue that Bailey announced a new rule of constitutional law, but this argument is unconvincing. Bailey decided nothing more than the proper meaning of use in § 924(c). See 516 U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 505 (We granted certiorari to clarify the meaning of 'use' under 924(c)(1)). In fact, the Court's opinion never mentions the Constitution. Thus, although the opinion may have constitutional dimensions, 12 Bailey did not announce a new rule of constitutional law. Accord In re Vial, 115 F.3d 1192, 1195 (4th Cir.1997) (en banc); United States v. Lorentsen, 106 F.3d 278, 279 (9th Cir.1997) (collecting cases). Under the AEDPA standard, we would have to deny Hanserd's request to file this § 2255 motion. 18 This is not, however, the end of our inquiry. If the remedy by [§ 2255] motion is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention, then a federal prisoner may apply for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241, 2244. 28 U.S.C. § 2255. If AEDPA bars Hanserd from raising his Bailey issue in a § 2255 motion, he could file a habeas petition pursuant to this provision. See Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 14-15, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1076-77, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963) (A [federal] prisoner barred by res judicata would seem as a consequence to have an 'inadequate or ineffective' remedy under § 2255 and thus be entitled to proceed in federal habeas corpus--where, of course, § 2244 applies.) (citation omitted); Cohen v. United States, 593 F.2d 766, 771 & n. 12 (6th Cir.1979) (allowing federal inmate to use habeas corpus where § 2255 remedy inadequate). See also Felker v. Turpin, ---U.S.----, 518 U.S. 651, ----, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 2340, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996) (The new restrictions on successive [habeas] petitions constitute a modified res judicata rule, a restraint on what is called in habeas corpus practice 'abuse of the writ.' ). 19 A § 2241 motion would not be barred by the new restrictions on successive motions and petitions. Section 2244(a) allows a district judge to refuse to entertain a repeat application for the writ by a federal prisoner only if it appears that the legality of such detention has been determined by a judge or court of the United States on a prior application for a writ of habeas corpus, except as provided in section 2255. As discussed above, Hanserd's previous § 2255 motion was not an application for a writ of habeas corpus; and, in any case, the exception just quoted, which was inserted by AEDPA § 106(a), explicitly states that § 2244(a) should not be read to supersede the provisions of § 2255. Similarly, § 2244(b), which contains new limits similar to those in § 2255 on successive petitions, applies by its terms only to a second or successive application under § 2244 or § 2254. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2), (b)(3). Hanserd's § 2255 motion was, axiomatically, a motion rather than an application and was filed in district court under § 2255 rather than § 2244 or § 2254. We therefore conclude that if Hanserd is now barred from filing a § 2255 motion, he may raise his Bailey claim under § 2241. Cf. Chambers v. United States, 106 F.3d 472, 474 (2d Cir.1997) (We hold that a petition asserting a claim to relief available under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is not a 'second or successive' application where the prior petition(s) sought relief available only under 28 U.S.C. § 2241.). D. Retroactive Effect under Landgraf 20 With this discussion in mind we now turn to Landgraf's retroactivity analysis. We analyze the case first under the assumption that § 2241 relief is available, and then under a contrary assumption. 21 1. If Hanserd May File a Petition for Habeas Corpus 22 If Hanserd may raise his Bailey claim in a habeas petition under § 2241, then AEDPA's new restrictions on second § 2255 motions apply to this case. The scope of, and standard for, relief is the same under either provision, at least where the alleged errors occur in the sentencing court. Sanders, 373 U.S. at 14, 83 S.Ct. at 1077. Cf. United States v. Jalili, 925 F.2d 889, 893 (6th Cir.1991) (holding that challenge to execution, rather than imposition, of sentence must be brought in habeas petition rather than § 2255 motion). Landgraf teaches that a new law that merely demands that a person use a different procedure to vindicate a right seldom raises retroactivity concerns. See Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 275, 114 S.Ct. at 1502. Under Landgraf it is not significant that under § 2241 the district court located near Hanserd's place of incarceration, rather than the court that originally sentenced him, would adjudicate the request for relief; the statute simply changes the tribunal that is to hear the case without affecting Hanserd's substantive rights. Id. at 274, 114 S.Ct. at 1501 (citation omitted). We therefore conclude that because § 2241 would provide an equivalent remedy as a § 2255 motion, requiring Hanserd to use the former instead of the latter would not have impermissible retroactive effect under Landgraf. 23 2. If Hanserd May Not File a Habeas Petition 24 Conversely, if Hanserd may not file a habeas petition under § 2244, then applying AEDPA's new restrictions to this case to prohibit his second § 2255 motion would attach[ ] new legal consequences to events completed before its enactment, and would therefore have impermissible retroactive effect. Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 270, 114 S.Ct. at 1499. When Hanserd filed his initial § 2255 motion, the law would have allowed him to raise a Bailey claim in a second motion, as discussed above. Under AEDPA, however, he may not. Applying the new statute would thus attach a severe new legal consequence to his filing a first motion: he would have lost his right to challenge his sentence. Burris v. Parke, 95 F.3d 465, 469 (7th Cir.1996) (en banc). See Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 280, 114 S.Ct. at 1504 (statute has retroactive effect where it would impair rights a party possessed when he acted.); Union Pacific R.R. v. Laramie Stock Yards Co., 231 U.S. 190, 199, 34 S.Ct. 101, 102, 58 L.Ed. 179 (1913) (The rule [against retroactive application of statutes] is one of obvious justice, and prevents the assigning of a quality or effect to acts or conduct which they did not have or did not contemplate when they were performed.). Because Congress has not expressed an intent that the new Act have such a retroactive effect, we could not apply AEDPA in this way. 13 25 The government directs our attention to the Seventh Circuit's opinions in Roldan v. United States, 96 F.3d 1013 (7th Cir.1996), and Nunez v. United States, 96 F.3d 990 (7th Cir.1996), to support the contention that because Hanserd did not consciously (i.e., for strategic reasons) omit the Bailey issue from his first petition, he cannot be said to have relied on the old rule and must proceed under AEDPA if at all. We disagree. Judge Easterbrook's conclusion in Roldan and Nunez ignores both the analytic framework and the holding of Landgraf. The central question in that case 14 was whether the 1991 Amendments to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which provided for compensatory damages in hostile-work-environment suits, should be applied to misconduct that antedated the new law. 511 U.S. at 283, 114 S.Ct. at 1506. The Court held that it did not apply, even though the conduct at issue had been unlawful for thirty years before the new law's enactment and could previously have supported an award of damages. Id. at 282 & n. 35, 114 S.Ct. at 1506 & n. 35; id. at 297, 114 S.Ct. at 1509 (Blackmun, J., dissenting). The Court did not speculate as to whether the employer had consciously relied on the old law in allowing discrimination against the plaintiff. 15 Instead, the Court held that the new provision should not be applied because doing so would attach a significant new adverse legal consequence to the conduct such that the defendant might have acted differently had he known of that new consequence. Id. at 283, 114 S.Ct. at 1506. Under the old law, inmates were supposed to file § 2255 motions promptly. See § 2255 Rule 9(a); Davis v. Adult Parole Auth., 610 F.2d 410, 415 (6th Cir.1979); Desmond v. United States, 333 F.2d 378, 381 (1st Cir.1964) ([A]pplications for relief such as this must be made promptly.... It will not even do for a prisoner to wait any longer than is reasonably necessary to prepare appropriate moving papers....). Had Hanserd known that AEDPA would change this, and that his initial § 2255 motion would bar a later motion based on a new Supreme Court interpretation of § 924(c), he might well have waited to file that initial motion. Where applying a new statute would attach a serious new adverse legal consequence 16 to pre-enactment conduct such that the party affected might have acted differently in light of the new law, Landgraf instructs us not to apply the new law. 17 26 The United States also suggests that the availability of a presidential pardon means that applying the new statute would not impair Hanserd's rights (assuming, still, that a district court could not grant a habeas petition under § 2241). We are unpersuaded. No one has a right to a presidential pardon. Binion v. United States Dep't of Justice, 695 F.2d 1189, 1190 (9th Cir.1983). See 28 C.F.R. §§ 1.1 et seq. (guidelines and procedure for executive clemency); Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 413, 113 S.Ct. 853, 867, 122 L.Ed.2d 203 (1993) ( 'A pardon is an act of grace ....' ) (quoting United States v. Wilson, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 150, 160, 8 L.Ed. 640 (1833)). To eliminate Hanserd's right to challenge his imprisonment, leaving him with a faint hope for presidential clemency, would impair that right. Furthermore, we doubt that the President is inclined to apply Bailey to the facts surrounding every prisoner who asserts a claim that he cannot raise under § 2255. The potential availability of executive clemency, then, does not change our opinion. 27 We also disagree with the government's position that Hanserd should have tried to raise his Bailey claim during the brief window between the Court's decision in that case and AEDPA's enactment. The government suggests that Hanserd should have tried to supplement his appeal of his first § 2255 motion in this court. Given our oft-repeated admonitions that appellants should not attempt to raise new issues on appeal, we will not penalize him for failing to do so, even if we sometimes make exceptions to the rule. See Taft Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 929 F.2d 240, 243-44 (6th Cir.1991) (listing Sixth Circuit cases). Similarly, the Supreme Court's familiar refusal to address questions not examined below makes us loathe to say that Hanserd should have raised the Bailey issue in a petition for certiorari. See Holly Farms Corp. v. NLRB, 517 U.S. 392, ---- n. 7, 116 S.Ct. 1396, 1402 n. 7, 134 L.Ed.2d 593 (1996). Finally, we will not penalize Hanserd for not immediately filing a second § 2255 motion in district court when Bailey was announced, in part because he cannot be charged with notice of AEDPA until its enactment date (by which time it was too late), and in part because the courts have never condoned filing one such motion while another is pending. In short, Hanserd followed the correct procedure under the old law, and we will not hold that against him. 28 Finally, the government points out that the Court in Felker, when it disposed of petitioner's application for a writ, noted that neither of Felker's claims satisfie[d] the requirements of the relevant provisions of the Act. 518 U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2341. This language is far from dispositive. Felker's petition was an abuse of the writ. Id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2337 (noting that the court of appeals had determined that the petition would have been barred under the old and new standards); id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2341 (noting that Felker's claims do not materially differ from numerous other claims made by successive habeas petitioners); id. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2341 (Stevens, J., concurring). Where the old and the new law lead to an identical result, there is no need to conduct a retroactivity analysis because the new law has not attached any new consequences to pre-enactment conduct or upset settled expectations. Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 269-270, 114 S.Ct. at 1498-99. Furthermore, the Court left open the question of whether or not the new restrictions even applied to its original jurisdiction to issue a writ of habeas corpus. Felker, 518 U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2339 (Whether or not we are bound by these restrictions, they certainly inform our consideration of original habeas petitions.). The Court in Felker did not purport to decide whether the gatekeeping restrictions should be applied to cases arising before AEDPA's enactment, and we will not assume that it did so sub rosa. 18 E. Which Provision Applies 29 This analysis leads us to an odd conundrum. Section 2255 explicitly states that federal prisoners may resort to habeas corpus if, and only if, § 2255 relief is inadequate. Our analysis of the AEDPA under Landgraf leads us to the contrapositive conclusion: Hanserd may file a new § 2255 motion under the old abuse-of-the-writ standard if, and only if, § 2255 bars him from obtaining relief in district court under § 2241. Hanserd may apply for relief under one, but not both, of these provisions; the question is which one. 30 Fortunately, Congress has provided our answer. In enacting § 2255, Congress expressed a clear preference that federal prisoners use that provision, rather than habeas corpus, to challenge their confinement, if possible. 19 Hanserd's single post-AEDPA attack should therefore be pursued under § 2255 unless the new Act requires a different result. As discussed above, AEDPA's text, seen through the lens of Landgraf, does not require a different result. Nor is allowing inmates in Hanserd's position to move for relief under § 2255 incompatible with Congress's intent in enacting AEDPA. The AEDPA is in large part intended to prevent state and federal inmates from continuing to flood the federal courts with challenges to their confinement and to put a stop to what many see as the use of multiple federal habeas corpus petitions to delay the execution of those sentenced to death. Our holding means that federal inmates will have one post-AEDPA bite at the apple, limited further, for prisoners who filed a § 2255 motion before AEDPA's enactment, by the old abuseof-the-writ standard. 20 One motion per federal prisoner with a colorable Bailey claim is hardly a flood, and offers little opportunity for delay. 21 We therefore hold that a federal prisoner must satisfy the new requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2255 only if he has filed a previous § 2255 motion on or after April 24, 1996, the date AEDPA was signed into law. As Hanserd's previous § 2255 motion was filed before that date, he does not need to meet this new standard to file a second motion. 22