Valdez

Federal prisoner Michael Valdez filed a post-conviction petition for relief that was construed by the district court as a § 2255 motion and dismissed as untimely. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and because we hold that Valdez’s motion was not time-barred, we reverse and remand.

I.

In 1991, a jury convicted Valdez of drug-trafficking, and of using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c)(1) (1991). Valdez was sentenced to 87 months’ imprisonment on the drug offenses and to a consecutive 60-month sentence on the firearms charge.

On July 31, 1997, Valdez filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 . In it, he indicated that he had not filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion because it would be barred by the new period of limitations applicable to § 2255 motions, enacted as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The government filed a motion to dismiss in lieu of a response to Valdez’s petition. In his opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss, Valdez asked the court to treat his petition as a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion and to find that the statute of…