Forest Hammond
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Louisiana
A 17 year old defendant was sentenced to life for felony murder without entering a plea of guilty, therefore constituting no Conviction. Six years later while his case was pending in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after a Federal Evidentiary Hearing wherein he won his case, his sentence was commuted to time serve leaving him with a criminal record. Had he went back to state court he would have filed a motion to quash the indictment on the grounds of prescription of not having been taken to trial within three years. This man is suffering a continuous violation of his civil rights when he was never convicted, per the Federal Magistrate's statements in the transcript of the evidentiary hearing. Can I file a motion to correct illegal sentence to get back in court to litigate these issues?