United States v. John Herman Thiele

Today we clarify our holding in United States v. Kramer, 195 F.3d 1129 (9th Cir.1999): 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is available to prisoners claiming the right to be released from custody. Claims for others types of relief, such as relief from a restitution order, cannot be brought in a § 2255 motion, whether or not the motion also contains cognizable claims for release from custody. We affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1996, a jury convicted Thiele of five counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 and three counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 . The district court sentenced Thiele to 24 months incarceration, imposed three years of supervised release, and ordered Thiele to pay restitution of $1,088,000, for which he was jointly and severally liable with a co-defendant.

Thiele appealed his conviction, but did not challenge the restitution order. We affirmed the conviction and sentence. United States v. Steiner, 152 F.3d 931 (9th Cir.1998) (memorandum disposition), cert. denied, 526 U.S. 1021 , 119 S.Ct. 1259 , 148 L.Ed.2d 355 (1999).

Thiele filed an amended § 2255 motion in district court challenging his conviction and the restitution order…