"Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence" means what???

December 15, 2012 7:18 AM

What does a motion to "Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence By A Person In Federal Custody" mean?

A person was convicted of a federal crime and sent to federal prison. The person appealed and filed a motion "To Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence By A Person In Federal Custody".

The motion was granted and the prisoner was released a short time later. The document says that the prisoner received ineffective assistance of council.

Specially, I'm trying to determine if this motion would have changed anything regarding the conviction.

Am I correct to read that the verdict still stands (ie the person is still guilty of the original crime) and that the motion only dealt with the sentence rather than the verdict?

I'm not a lawyer. I'm trying to understand this so that I can accurately describe the person.

posted by foggy out there now to Law & Government (1 answer total)

The motion you describe is commonly known as a habeas petition. The title does indeed refer to the sentence, leaving the conviction as it is. Sometimes, however, especially if prisoners write their own habeas petitions, they title things incorrectly. To be certain, I would look at the judge's order granting the prisoner's motion and see what it says, specifically. Most likely, however, the conviction stands and the sentence was vacated and a new sentence imposed that led to the prisoner's release. If the judge's order says anything like "conviction vacated," that is a different story.
posted by *s at 7:28 AM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]