Lewis v. Attorney General
District Court, District of Columbia · 2009-03-05
Anthony Lewis, serving a life sentence for 1994 federal drug convictions, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to compel federal and state agencies to produce documents under the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act. He alleged that his conviction resulted from fraud, illegal wiretaps without proper authorization, fabricated search warrants, and concealment by prosecutors, agents, and judges, and he sought the documents to support challenges to his sentence. The court construed the petition as a successive motion to vacate the sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 rather than a proper FOIA request or discovery motion. Because Lewis had previously filed and been denied § 2255 motions, and had not obtained authorization from the Eleventh Circuit as required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the court denied the petition as an unauthorized successive collateral attack. The case was dismissed and judgment entered against Lewis.
