Opinion
No. 08-30660 Summary Calendar.
October 9, 2009.
Robert William Piedrahita, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Chadwick Denard Chisholm, Memphis, TN, pro se.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, USDC No. 3:94-CR-19-1.
Before GARZA, DENNIS, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.
Chadwick Denard Chisholm, federal prisoner # 08652-35, is serving a 292-month sentence for conspiracy to possess and possession with intent to distribute cocaine base. Chisholm filed a motion, styled as a FED.R.CIV.P. 60(b) motion to reopen his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings. Chisholm's § 2255 motion was denied in 1997, but he sought to reopen the matter to address an alleged jurisdictional defect in the proceeding pursuant to Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 531-33, 125 S.Ct. 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005). The district court construed Chisholm's pleading as an unauthorized successive § 2255 motion and dismissed the motion for lack of jurisdiction.
Chisholm argues that, because the indictment against him failed to allege a drug quantity, the indictment was defective and the district court lacked jurisdiction to sentence him to more than the 20-year statutory maximum set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). This specific argument constitutes a new theory of relief. Although Chisholm challenged the adequacy of the district court factual findings with respect to drug quantity in his § 2255 motion, he did not raise the specific argument he asserts here. Accordingly, the district court did not err in construing his motion as an unauthorized successive § 2255 motion. See Gonzalez, 545 U.S. at 531, 532 nn. 4-5, 125 S.Ct. 2641.
AFFIRMED.