Criminal Procedure — habeas corpus

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — habeas corpus

It was not an abuse of discretion to deny a motion to amend a petition under 28 U.S.C. 2255 where the prisoner committed perjury.

“The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Vitrano’s motion to amend his § 2255 petition when he was abandoning his original claims in the face of defeat and attempting an end-run around AEDPA’s limitations on second or successive motions. We do not impute bad faith to Vitrano’s counsel who did what he could to bring what might have been a good claim under Begay. The bad faith is Vitrano’s own, and a result of his abuse of the writ in pursuing a fraudulent petition. That said, the district court’s decision to deny Vitrano ‘a tactical advantage in the face of impending defeat,’ Garrett, 178 F.3d at 943, is within the bounds of reasonableness.

Affirmed.

12-1282 Vitrano v. U.S.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Randa, J., Tinder, J.