Earl Brooks v. United States

This is an appeal from the denial, without hearing, of a second motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . The district court denied the second motion on the ground that the contentions made therein are identical to those made in the first section 2255 motion, which went to hearing.

Assuming that the grounds of the two motions were identical and that, as appears to be the case, the first mo tion was denied on the merits, these circumstances would not warrant outright denial of the second motion, absent a determination that the ends of justice would not be served by permitting the redetermination of the ground raised in the first section 2255 motion. See Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 15-17 , 83 S.Ct. 1068 , 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). There was no such determination here.

But the second section 2255 motion filed by Brooks added a new ground for vacating the judgment or an initial ground for correcting an assertedly illegal sentence.

This new point is that, at the original sentencing, the district court erroneously believed that, since petitioner had twice been convicted of a felony he was precluded, by 18 U.S.C. § 4251 (f) (4), from treatment under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act…