Sepulveda v. United States

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

Invoking 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2000), petitioner-appellant George Sepulveda, a federal prisoner, mounted a collateral attack on his conviction and sentence for witness intimidation. The district court repulsed the attack. The petitioner’s ensuing appeal presents two questions of first impression within this circuit. The first asks whether the rule announced in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), applies retroactively to cases on collateral review. The second, relevant only if Apprendi lacks such retroactivity, asks whether the…