Opinion
No. 00 CR 301-1
January 3, 2003
MEMORANDUM ORDER
Matt Janus ("Janus") has just submitted a self-prepared document that he captions "Mandamus In Support of Habeas Corpus Motion." As that label suggests, Janus has not yet tendered any document that identifies just what he proposes as a basis for obtaining what he calls habeas corpus relief (because he is serving a federal sentence, other than in extraordinary circumstances Janus' only avenue for post-conviction relief would instead be under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 ("Section 2255")).
What Janus currently asks is to be provided with this set of documents that he says he needs to prepare a petition for relief:
(1) Any and all indictments of the said defendant.
(2) Any and all pre-trial, plea proceedings, and the sentencing transcripts.
(3) A complete copy of the pre-sentence repots and of the judgement order.
But the obvious threshold difficulty with any such request is that Janus was sentenced just over two years ago, while Section 2255 allows only one year after a conviction has become final within which relief may be sought.
Accordingly Janus' current request must be and is denied out of hand. If he somehow believes himself to possess any claim that would qualify for relief because it falls outside the scope of Section 2255 and is hence not bound by its time limitation, Janus must submit some other filing to explain why that is so.