Mose Stephens, Jr., A/K/A Steve M. Stephens v. Al Herrera, Warden United States of America

Petitioner-appellant Mose Stephens appeals the district court’s dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2241 habeas corpus petition for lack of jurisdiction. Stephens argues that because the remedy provided by 28 U.S.C. § 2255 is “inadequate or ineffective” to test his claim of “actual innocence” based on Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813 , 119 S.Ct. 1707 , 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999), the district court may entertain his § 2241 petition. We conclude that Stephens has not made a sufficient showing of actual innocence within the meaning of Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 623 , 118 S.Ct. 1604 , 140 L.Ed.2d 828 (1998). We therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal of Stephens’s § 2241 petition.

I. Background

In 1987, after a jury trial in federal district court in Oklahoma, Stephens was convicted of (1) conspiring to possess and distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 , (2) conspiring to impede and impair the collection of federal income taxes in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 , and (3) engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848 . Stephens was sentenced to forty years in prison. In 1988, his conviction was affirmed…