United States v. Palmer-Contreras

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION--NOT TO BE CITED AS PRECEDENT] United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 98-1085 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. ELIGIO PALMER-CONTRERAS, Defendant, Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO [Hon. Hector M. Laffitte, U.S. District Judge] Before Torruella, Chief Judge, Selya and Stahl, Circuit Judges. Eligio Palmer-Contreras on brief pro se. Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, Jose A. Quiles- Espinosa, Senior Litigation Counsel, and Camille Velez-Rive, Assistant United States Attorney, on brief for appellee. September 11, 1998 Per Curiam. The district court denied the motion of appellant Eligio Palmer-Contreras to "equalize" his sentence; appellant filed this motion under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(6). After reviewing the record and the parties' briefs, we conclude that there was no statute or rule under which appellant was entitled to seek this relief. First, 3553 which is part of the Sentencing Reform Act is only applicable to offenses committed after November 1, 1987, the effective date of the Act. See United States v. Glantz, 884 F.2d 1483, 1488 (1st Cir. 1989) (citations omitted). Appellant committed his offense in October 1987. Thus, 3553 does not apply to him. This leaves the remedies in existence prior to the effective date of the Sentencing Reform Act Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b) and 28 U.S.C. 2255 and 2241. The 120-day time limit of the applicable version of Rule 35(b) is jurisdictional. See United States v. Ames, 743 F.2d 46, 47-48 (1st Cir. 1984) (per curiam). Appellant filed the instant motion about nine years after the district court imposed sentence. As a result, such a motion would have been time-barred. Construing appellant's motion as a petition for relief under 28 U.S.C. 2255 also would not help appellant. That is, appellant had filed a previous 2255 motion in July 1990 and this motion was denied on the merits. If the current motion were construed as being brought under 2255, then, it would be appellant's second. Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act which applies here since the motion at hand was filed in 1997, see Pratt v. United States, 129 F.3d 54, 58 (1st Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S.Ct. 1807 (1998) appellant would be prohibited from filing a second or successive motion in the district court absent permission from this court. See 28 U.S.C. 2255 (1996). He has not received such permission. Nor do we think such a motion would be successful on the merits. See Entrekin v. United States, 508 F.2d 1328, 1330 (8th Cir. 1974) (a claim of disparate sentencing is not cognizable in a 2255 motion). Finally, 2241 is not available to appellant in this case because he is not contesting the conditions of his confinement. See Miller v. United States, 564 F.2d 103, 105 (1st Cir. 1977). As for the new argument concerning appellant's role in the offense, appellant has waived it by failing to raise it below. See United States v. Dietz, 950 F.2d 50, 55 (1st Cir. 1991). The judgment of the district court dismissing appellant's motion is affirmed.