Court Opinion

ID: 6329262
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-04-01 20:01:19.15172+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:49.351368
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

                       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                      No. 21-7455

EUGENE N. WILSON,

                    Petitioner - Appellant,

             v.

WARDEN J.C. STREEVAL,

                    Respondent - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at
Roanoke. Michael F. Urbanski, Chief District Judge. (7:20-cv-00307-MFU-JCH)

Submitted: March 29, 2022                                         Decided: April 1, 2022

Before HARRIS, QUATTLEBAUM, and HEYTENS, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Eugene N. Wilson, Appellant Pro Se.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:

       Eugene N. Wilson, a federal prisoner, appeals the district court’s order dismissing

for lack of jurisdiction Wilson’s 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition in which Wilson sought to

challenge his sentence and three of his convictions by way of the savings clause in 28

U.S.C. § 2255. Pursuant to § 2255(e), a prisoner may challenge his conviction and

sentence in a traditional writ of habeas corpus pursuant to § 2241 if a § 2255 motion would

be inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention.

       [Section] 2255 is inadequate and ineffective to test the legality of a sentence
       when: (1) at the time of sentencing, settled law of this circuit or the Supreme
       Court established the legality of the sentence; (2) subsequent to the prisoner’s
       direct appeal and first § 2255 motion, the aforementioned settled substantive
       law changed and was deemed to apply retroactively on collateral review;
       (3) the prisoner is unable to meet the gatekeeping provisions of § 2255(h)(2)
       for second or successive motions; and (4) due to this retroactive change, the
       sentence now presents an error sufficiently grave to be deemed a fundamental
       defect.

United States v. Wheeler, 886 F.3d 415, 429 (4th Cir. 2018). In addition,

       [Section] 2255 is inadequate and ineffective to test the legality of a
       conviction when: (1) at the time of conviction, settled law of this circuit or
       the Supreme Court established the legality of the conviction; (2) subsequent
       to the prisoner’s direct appeal and first § 2255 motion, the substantive law
       changed such that the conduct of which the prisoner was convicted is deemed
       not to be criminal; and (3) the prisoner cannot satisfy the gatekeeping
       provisions of § 2255 because the new rule is not one of constitutional law.

In re Jones, 226 F.3d 328, 333-34 (4th Cir. 2000).

       In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Greer v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 2090

(2021), we discern no error in the district court’s ruling that Wilson could not satisfy either

the Wheeler test or the In re Jones standard. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s

order. Wilson v. Streeval, No. 7:20-cv-00307-MFU-JCH (W.D. Va. filed Sept. 21, 2021;

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entered Sept. 27, 2021). We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal

contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would

not aid the decisional process.

                                                                             AFFIRMED

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