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Gooden: District Court Failed to give recharacterization notice

By Tim Cone

In Gooden v. U.S., No. 09-10499 (Dec. 8, 2009), the Court held that the district court improperly dismissed Gooden?s motion to compel a reduction of sentence for substantial assistance. The district court had dismissed the motion on the ground that it was an untimely 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, and was an unauthorized ?second and successive? motion. Prior to this motion, the inmate had filed a ?motion to modify? his sentence, which the district court had recharacterized as a § 2255 motion. However, in so recharacterizing the inmate?s motion, the district court failed to give the inmate notice of the recharacterization and its adverse consequences on future § 2255 motions, as required by Castro v. U.S., 540 U.S. 375 (2003). Because of the district court?s initial failure to give notice of recharacterization, it could not now dismiss Gooden?s latest motion for being second or successive...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on December 08, 2010 (boomark / email).