Fernandez v. United States · ¶114

This case illustrates why the new line the majority draws is a fuzzy one. The District Court did not question the legality of the jury's verdict or Fernandez's conviction. See 2022 WL 17039059, *4 (SDNY, Nov. 17, 2022). To the contrary, it found that despite the lawfulness of Fernandez's conviction, its lingering “concer[n]” as to his guilt was an “extraordinary and compelling” reason for a sentence reduction. Ibid. A prisoner who proceeds through § 2255, however, must show that his sentence was unlawful—specifically, that it was “imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States.” § 2255(a). That is something Fernandez cannot defnitively do, given this Court's expressed doubts about whether “a freestanding claim of actual innocence” suffces to establish the unlawfulness of a sentence. McQuiggin v. Perkins, 569 U. S. 383, 392 (2013).

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