By: Derek Hawkins//September 26, 2021//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Michael L. Millis v. M. Segal
Case No.: 20-1520
Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and BRENNAN and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Sentencing Guidelines
In 1994, Michael Millis was found guilty of several crimes related to a pair of armed robberies in the Eastern District of Kentucky. At sentencing, Millis’s previous convictions qualified him as a career offender under the then-mandatory Sentencing Guidelines. Millis received a total sentence of 410 months’ imprisonment and since his confinement, he has sought post-conviction relief at least a dozen times.
Millis does so again here. Attempting to benefit from intervening legal changes that affect his career offender designation, Millis invokes what is often known as the “savings clause” of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), which would allow him to petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. But the savings clause is a narrow exception to the general rule that a federal sentence must be collaterally attacked under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Millis’s sentence on his guidelines counts fell within the range for a non-career offender, so the district court held that his career offender designation had not resulted in a miscarriage of justice, the third element of this court’s savings clause test. We agree and affirm the denial of his habeas petition.
Affirmed