Ross-Varner
Ross-Varner v. United States
Opinion
Trial Court Opinion
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 5 SAMANTHA LEIGH ROSS-VARNER, Case No. 20-cv-05566-AGT
Plaintiff,
ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO
v. DISMISS
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Re: Dkt. No. 8 Defendant.
In 2015, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, Samantha Leigh Ross-Varner pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). For that crime and a related offense she is serving a sentence in the Northern District of California. She has petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, under 28 U.S.C. § 2241. At issue here is the government’s motion to dismiss the petition. Ross-Varner contends that the writ should issue because her plea colloquy was constitutionally inadequate. The sentencing judge told her that to convict, the government would need to prove that she knowingly possessed a firearm, that at the time of possession she was a felon (meaning that she had been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one…