Plea & Sentencing – Collateral-attack Waivers

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Yorie Von Kahl v. Michael Segal, Warden, et al.,

Case No.: 19-3026

Officials: EASTERBROOK, WOOD, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Plea & Sentencing – Collateral-attack Waivers

Yorie Von Kahl is serving a life sentence, plus consecutive terms of ten and five years’ imprisonment, for murdering two deputy United States Marshals and committing related crimes.* The judgment was affirmed on direct appeal, and a collateral attack under 28 U.S.C. §2255 failed. United States v. Faul, 748 F.2d 1204 (8th Cir. 1984); Von Kahl v. United States, 242 F.3d 783 (8th Cir. 2001). A debate about the length of his custody is the principal issue in Von Kahl’s petition under 28 U.S.C. §2241.

Von Kahl also wants to relitigate the issues presented in his collateral attack, but §2241 allows review of a conviction or sentence only when §2255 is inadequate, see §2255(e), and we know that §2255 is adequate to resolve these issues because they were resolved under that statute. Section 2241 is not a means to get a second opinion in a different circuit. See Vialva v. Watson, 975 F.3d 664 (7th Cir. 2020); Lee v. Watson, 964 F.3d 663 (7th Cir. 2020); Roundtree v. Krueger, 910 F.3d 312 (7th Cir. 2018); Harris v. Warden, 425 F.3d 386 (7th Cir. 2005). No more need be said on this subject.

So Von Kahl’s presumptive release date is February 12, 2023. The Bureau must let him go then unless the Commission acts under the statutory proviso and “determines that he has seriously or frequently violated institution rules and regulations or that there is a reasonable probability that he will commit any Federal, State, or local crime.” The onus of making such a finding is on the Commission. We mention the possibility here only to clarify that February 12, 2023, is a presumptive parole release date, not an outer limit to his custody. The outer limit is the end of his life.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.