Court Opinion

ID: 9407627
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-07 18:00:56.729694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:39.297208
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-40834         Document: 00516812701             Page: 1      Date Filed: 07/07/2023

              United States Court of Appeals
                   for the Fifth Circuit                                        United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                         Fifth Circuit

                                      ____________                                     FILED
                                                                                      July 7, 2023
                                       No. 22-40834                               Lyle W. Cayce
                                     Summary Calendar                                  Clerk
                                     ____________

   Raymond Garcia Carmona, Jr.,

                                                                    Petitioner—Appellant,

                                             versus

   Warden, Federal Correctional Institution Beaumont Medium,

                                                Respondent—Appellee.
                      ______________________________

                      Appeal from the United States District Court
                           for the Eastern District of Texas
                                USDC No. 1:22-CV-184
                      ______________________________

   Before Dennis, Elrod, and Willett, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
          Raymond Garcia Carmona, Jr., a federal inmate, appeals the dismissal
   of his 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition, which challenged the sentence set forth in
   his amended judgment for his convictions for conspiracy to distribute and
   possess with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana and
   distribution and possession with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of

          _____________________
          *
              This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-40834      Document: 00516812701          Page: 2   Date Filed: 07/07/2023

                                    No. 22-40834

   marijuana. The district court dismissed Carmona’s § 2241 petition after
   determining that Carmona’s challenge to his sentence should properly be
   brought as a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, Carmona failed to show that his § 2241
   petition qualified under the § 2255 savings clause, the district court lacked
   jurisdiction to entertain a § 2255 motion from Carmona because he was
   convicted in a different district, and his § 2241 petition was barred by the
   waiver provision in his plea agreement.
          On appeal, Carmona argues that the district court committed a
   structural error by changing the imprisonment terms in the amended
   judgment to run consecutively rather than concurrently and that the resulting
   sentence violated the terms of his plea agreement. We review the district
   court’s factual findings for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo.
   Christopher v. Miles, 342 F.3d 378, 381 (5th Cir. 2003). Section 2255’s savings
   clause permits prisoners to challenge the validity of their convictions under
   § 2241 if they show that § 2255’s remedy “is inadequate or ineffective.” 28
   U.S.C. § 2255(e); see also Reyes-Requena v. United States, 243 F.3d 893, 901
   (5th Cir. 2001). The savings clause applies if the petitioner’s claim (1) “is
   based on a retroactively applicable Supreme Court decision which establishes
   that the petitioner may have been convicted of a nonexistent offense” and
   (2) “was foreclosed by circuit law at the time when the claim should have
   been raised in the petitioner’s trial, appeal, or first § 2255 motion.” Reyes-
   Requena, 243 F.3d at 904. The district court correctly concluded that
   Carmona does not meet this test. The district court also lacked jurisdiction
   to construe Carmona’s § 2241 petition as a § 2255 motion because Carmona
   was sentenced in the Northern District of Texas. See United States v. Parker,
   927 F.3d 374, 378-79 (5th Cir. 2019); Pack v. Yusuff, 218 F.3d 448, 451 (5th
   Cir. 2000).
          AFFIRMED.

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