11th Circuit upholds dismissal of federal prisoner Robert Harris's attempts to amend his habeas petition…
Robert Harris v. Warden, FCC Coleman USP I
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11th Circuit upholds dismissal of federal prisoner Robert Harris's attempts to amend his habeas petition and seek reconsideration, ruling both efforts came too late and relitigated already-decided issues.
Why it matters
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Robert Harris's motion to amend his habeas petition and his motion for reconsideration. The court found that Harris could not amend his petition after final judgment had already been entered, and that his core argument about the "saving clause" had already been decided in a prior appeal in the same case, making it barred by the law-of-the-case doctrine. His motion for reconsideration was also improper because it simply sought to relitigate those same issues.
Who it affects
This ruling most directly affects federal prisoners who seek to challenge their convictions or sentences through habeas corpus petitions, particularly those who attempt to amend their petitions or seek reconsideration after a final judgment has already been entered in their case.
What happens next
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Decision issued Jul 13, 2026
Unpublished opinion
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- Decision issued Jul 13, 2026Unpublished opinion
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Jul 13, 2026 · Unpublished opinion
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DEEPER READ
Robert Harris, a federal prisoner, was convicted in 1999 and 2000 on multiple drug and money laundering charges and received sentences including a life term. After his initial motion to vacate his sentence under federal law was denied, and later attempts were dismissed as successive, Harris filed a habeas corpus petition in 2023 raising thirteen grounds for relief, including challenges to his convictions, sentences, and requests for jail and good-time credit. The case had a lengthy procedural history in which the Eleventh Circuit twice vacated and remanded the district court's rulings, directing the lower court to address all of Harris's claims. After the district court ultimately dismissed the conviction-related claims for lack of jurisdiction and ruled against Harris on the credit claims, it entered final judgment. Harris then tried to file a motion to amend his petition in the district court. The central legal questions on this appeal were whether the district court should have allowed Harris to amend his petition after judgment was entered, and whether it should have reconsidered its earlier rulings. The Eleventh Circuit said no on both counts. Under established precedent, a district court cannot grant leave to amend a habeas petition once final judgment has been entered and the case is no longer before it. Additionally, the law-of-the-case doctrine prevents courts from revisiting issues that were necessarily decided in a prior appeal in the same case, which applied to Harris's argument about the "saving clause," a legal standard that determines when a federal prisoner can use a habeas petition to challenge a conviction instead of a standard motion to vacate. The court also affirmed the denial of Harris's Rule 59(e) motion for reconsideration, because that motion improperly sought to relitigate the same issues rather than raise new grounds that could not have been presented earlier. The Eleventh Circuit found no abuse of discretion by the district court in either ruling. No dissent was noted in the opinion.
CITATION AND RECORD
Record source: CourtListener
USCA11 Case: 25-13783 Document: 20-1 Date Filed: 07/13/2026 Page: 1 of 4 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-13783 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ ROBERT MARVIN HARRIS, Petitioner-Appellant, versus WARDEN, FCC COLEMAN USP I, Respondent-Appellee. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 5:23-cv-00366-PGB-PRL ____________________ Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and LUCK and LAGOA, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Robert Harris appeals pro se the denials of his post-judgment motion to amend his petition for writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. USCA11 Case: 25-13783 Document: 20-1 Date Filed: 07/13/2026 Page: 2 of 4 2 Opinion of the Court 25-13783 § 2241, and his Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) motion for reconsideration. We affirm. In 1999, Harris was convicted of conspiring to import and possessing with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana and sen- tenced to concurrent terms of 600 months of imprisonment. In 2000, he was convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine, conspir- ing to commit money laundering, and maintaining a place to man- ufacture and distribute crack cocaine and was sentenced to a con- current life term. In 2001, he filed a motion to vacate, 28 U.S.C. § 2255, which the district court denied with prejudice. He later filed other motions to vacate, which were dismissed as successive. In 2023, Harris filed an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus that raised 13 grounds for relief. Id. § 2241. Six grounds con- cerned his 1999 convictions: the district court improperly enhanced his sentence, the statute of conviction did not prohibit his conduct, the district court improperly ordered forfeiture, and his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective. Five grounds concerned his 2000 convictions: his indictment did not specify a drug quantity, his convictions violated the Double Jeopardy Clause and were unsup- ported by sufficient evidence, and his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective. In two grounds, he sought jail credit and good-time credit. The district court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdic- tion but ruled on only four claims. It ruled that it lacked jurisdiction because the saving clause, see 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e), allows challenges USCA11 Case: 25-13783 Document: 20-1 Date Filed: 07/13/2026 Page: 3 of 4 25-13783 Opinion of the Court 3 to sentences under section 2241 only when a motion to vacate un- der section 2255 is an inadequate or ineffective remedy to test the legality of detention, and Harris failed to satisfy that standard. We vacated and remanded for the district court to consider all Harris’s claims. See Clisby v. Jones, 960 F.2d 925, 936 (11th Cir. 1992) (en banc). On remand, the district court dismissed with prej- udice the eleven claims challenging his 1999 and 2000 convictions for lack of jurisdiction because they challenged the validity of his convictions and sentences and could have been tested in a motion to vacate. It ruled that he was statutorily ineligible for good-time credit while serving a life sentence and his argument regarding jail credit depended on his life sentence being recalculated based on his success in challenging his underlying convictions. We vacated and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice the claims where the district court lacked jurisdiction and otherwise affirmed. Harris filed a motion to amend his petition in the district court. He argued that the law-of-the-case doctrine did not bar re- considering whether he satisfied the saving clause because our opinion was “silent” on the issue. He also argued that his earlier filing of a motion to vacate did not bar considering whether he sat- isfied the saving clause. He reiterated that federal prisoners could file a petition under section 2241 if the remedy under section 2255 was inadequate, and he maintained that he lacked an adequate remedy in his original motion to vacate. The district court denied his motion, and it denied his later motion for reconsideration. USCA11 Case: 25-13783 Document: 20-1 Date Filed: 07/13/2026 Page: 4 of 4 4 Opinion of the Court 25-13783 We review the denial of leave to amend a habeas petition for abuse of discretion. See Pelmer v. White, 877 F.2d 1518, 1523 (11th Cir. 1989). A district court cannot grant leave to amend a habeas petition no longer before it. Boyd v. Sec’y, Dep’t Corr., 114 F.4th 1232, 1237 (11th Cir. 2024). A habeas petition is no longer before a district court after it has entered final judgment. Id. at 1236. Under the law-of-the-case doctrine, courts will not reconsider issues nec- essarily decided during a prior appeal in the same case. Thomas v. United States, 572 F.3d 1300, 1303 (11th Cir. 2009). We likewise re- view denials of motions for reconsideration under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) for abuse of discretion. Arthur v. King, 500 F.3d 1335, 1343 (11th Cir. 2007). A motion under Rule 59 cannot be used to relitigate issues or to raise issues that the movant could have presented before entry of judgment. Id. The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Harris’s motions to amend or for reconsideration. His argument about the saving clause was barred by the law-of-the-case doctrine. Thomas, 572 F.3d at 1303. And the district court could not permit Harris to amend his petition after it already had entered judgment. Boyd, 114 F.4th at 1236-37. The district court also did not abuse its discretion in denying Harris’s motion to reconsider, which sought to relitigate those issues. See Arthur, 500 F.3d at 1343. We AFFIRM the denial of Harris’s motions.
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