Stevens v. United States, No. 11-10486 (11th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a federal prisoner, appealed the district court's dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. The district court granted him a certificate of appealability (COA) as to the following issue: "[W]hether 'actual innocence' applies to a career offender sentence that has been final for nine years after a plea agreement that waived an appeal." Because petitioner's arguments centered on the legal classification of the crime of possession of cannabis, his claim was one of legal, not factual, innocence. Thus, petitioner had not excused the procedural deficiencies facing his motion to vacate and the court affirmed the dismissal of the motion in light of McKay v. United States.
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