Ezell Gilbert v. United States

Ezell Gilbert, a federal prisoner, wants to have an error of law in the calculation of his sentence corrected based upon a Supreme Court decision interpreting the sentencing guidelines, even though that decision was issued eleven years after he was sentenced. Gilbert insists that prisoners have a right to have errors in the calculation of their sentences corrected no matter how long it has been since the sentences were imposed. His insistence calls to mind Justice Holmes’ observation that “All rights tend to declare themselves absolute to their logical extreme.” Hudson Cnty. Water Co. v. McCarter, 209 U.S. 349, 355, 28 S.Ct. 529, 531, 52 L.Ed. 828 (1908). But as Holmes also explained in the same thought, ‘Yet all [rights] in fact are limited by the neighborhood of principles of policy which are other than those on which the particular right is founded, and which become strong enough to hold their own when a certain point is reached.” Id.

The principles of policy that limit the right to be resentenced in accord with the latest guidelines decisions are those regarding finality of judgment and the important interests that finality promotes. For reasons we will discuss, the statutory provisions and the decisions furthering finality of judgment are strong enough to hold their own against Gilbert’s claimed right to have a long-ago error in calculating his sentence corrected.

In more technical terms, we granted rehearing en banc in this case to decide whether the savings clause contained in 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e) permits a federal prisoner to challenge his sentence in a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition when he cannot raise that challenge in a § 2255 motion because of the § 2255(h) bar against second and successive motions. The primary question, in plainer English, is whether a federal prisoner can use a habeas corpus petition to challenge his sentence. Our answer is “no,” at least where the sentence the prisoner is attacking does not exceed the statutory maximum.

I. BACKGROUND

The facts underlying the sentence in this case, and the procedural history, illuminate the issue and the competing considerations that we consider in deciding it.

*1296 A. Gilbert’s Crime and Criminal History

On October 11, 1995, Ezell Gilbert set off for a day of work, plying his trade near the Cottage Hills Housing Project, a high crime area of Tampa, Florida. That day Gilbert was working out of his car, a four-door 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity. He was a drug dealer, and two officers of the Tampa Police Department, who were hidden from view, were conducting surveillance of illegal activity in the area.

Around 9:30 a.m. the officers spotted Gilbert as he stopped his car and allowed a man to enter it. Once inside, the man appeared to give money to Gilbert in exchange for some rocks of crack cocaine. The officers then saw the man exit the ear as he counted the rocks he had bought. A short time later, the officers saw another man enter Gilbert’s car and engage in another drug deal with him. At that point, the officers conducting surveillance notified a patrol car that was a few blocks away and provided the car’s license plate number. The officers in the patrol car discovered through a computer check that the plate number was assigned to a different make and model car. By this time Gilbert was on the move, driving in the direction of the patrol car, which was at a nearby intersection. The officers in the patrol car trailed Gilbert’s vehicle for about a block before it turned into the parking lot of a convenience store. When the officers approached Gilbert’s car, he tried to flee on foot but they stopped him.

The officers discovered that Gilbert had not been alone in the car. In a drug dealer’s version of “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day,” Gilbert had brought his five-year-old daughter, Keidra, along with him as he plied his trade. She had been seated in the back seat of the small car the whole time. She was there as two drug addicts climbed into the car to buy drugs from Gilbert, and he left her there as he attempted to run away from the approaching officer.

When police demanded to see the car’s registration, Gilbert reluctantly opened the glove compartment. A clear plastic bag containing what appeared to be crack cocaine fell out into his hand and into plain view. Shoving it back in the compartment, Gilbert told police that “nothing” was in the bag. At that point the police placed him under arrest and started to search the car. As the officers did so, Gilbert exclaimed, “[T]he car ain’t mine; I don’t know what’s in that car.”

What was in that car, in addition to Gilbert’s young daughter, was the bag that had fallen from the glove compartment. It contained 67 grams of crack cocaine, and there was a smaller bag containing 2 grams of powder cocaine in the glove compartment. And there were also 40 “ring baggies” containing a total of 111 grams of marijuana stashed under the car’s front seat.

The record does not reveal whether that day was the first time that Gilbert had taken his five-year-old daughter into harm’s way with him as he committed crimes, but it does reveal that this was not the first time he had committed crimes. Gilbert’s known criminal history began in 1989, when he was only 19 years old. In March of 1989 he was arrested on state charges for possession of cocaine and possession of alcohol by a minor, but those charges were dropped. Two arrests followed in May 1989 for possession of alcohol by a minor, but the State evidently did not pursue the charges.

Gilbert soon graduated to more serious crimes. In September 1989, while still 19 years old, he was arrested for striking a police officer who had been attempting to detain him for battery on a female. It appears from the record that Gilbert was later convicted for battery and obstructing *1297or opposing officers without violence in connection with that incident, and he was sentenced to an unspecified amount of time served. Also in September of 1989, Gilbert was arrested and charged with two state felonies: possession of cocaine with intent to sell or distribute and carrying a concealed firearm (a shotgun was found under the car seat). In January of 1990, at age 20, he was sentenced to three years probation on both counts, with formal adjudication withheld pending his successful completion of probation.

Instead of successfully completing probation, however, Gilbert chose to commit more crimes. As a result, a probation violation notice was filed on March 2, 1990, and a few days later Gilbert was arrested and charged with more state crimes, including possession of cocaine. He was convicted of the new cocaine charge on March 29, 1990, and on that date received a sentence of 2 years of community control.

Seventeen days later, on April 16, 1990, state authorities filed yet another notice that Gilbert had violated the terms of the probation that had been imposed on him just three months earlier. On June 6, 1990, he was found to have violated his probation and as a result was adjudicated guilty on the January 1990 crimes of possession of cocaine with intent to sell or distribute and carrying a concealed firearm. He was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for those two crimes. On or about that same date, Gilbert also received the same sentence on the March 7, 1990 charge of possession of cocaine. Those sentences were imposed when Gilbert was 20.

How much time Gilbert actually served is unclear, but it certainly was not 30 months. By October 24, 1991, only 17 months after he had been sentenced, the 21-year-old Gilbert was free again, a fact we know because he was arrested on that date for possession of marijuana. Gilbert was convicted of that marijuana charge and on January 28, 1992, at age 22, he received yet another sentence of probation, this time for one year. Less than two months later, yet another probation violation notice had been filed, and in August of 1993, when Gilbert was 23, he was arrested yet again, this time on two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to sell or distribute. The State filed an “order of release” as to both those charges on September 8, 1993, but in what may have been a related action, on September 14 Gilbert was sentenced to one year imprisonment on the 1991 marijuana charge. He was then 23 years old.

Gilbert once again did not serve his full time in prison; instead, he was released on January 8, 1994, just four months into his one-year term. And once again, it was not long before Gilbert was caught committing another crime. That September, an officer who had stopped him for a traffic violation spotted a handgun next to Gilbert’s right leg, and a search of his car revealed 22.3 grams of crack cocaine. For some reason Gilbert, then age 24, was charged only with carrying a concealed firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm. On December 19, 1994, shortly after he had turned 25, Gilbert was sentenced to three years probation for each crime. And true to form, Gilbert did not successfully complete his probationary period. Instead, he violated it when he committed the drug crimes involved in this case on October 11, 1995, about a month before he turned 26. This time he would not be treated leniently.

The State of Florida charged Gilbert with trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and child abuse, all in connection with his October 11, 1995 arrest. The child abuse charges stemmed from Gilbert’s having his daughter with him while he was *1298dealing drugs. All of those state charges, however, were nolle prossed in January 1996, in deference to the federal indictment of Gilbert for that same illegal drug conduct.

B. Gilbert’s Indictment, Conviction, and Sentencing

The indictment of Gilbert in December 1995 included one count of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute and one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. The government filed a timely 21 U.S.C. § 851 notice of the prior drug convictions that it intended to rely on in seeking an enhanced statutory penalty range under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). That notice listed three of Gilbert’s prior convictions: his March 1990 conviction for possession of cocaine; his June 1990 conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to sell or distribute; and his January 1992 conviction for possession of marijuana. Given the quantity of crack cocaine that Gilbert was charged with possessing with intent to sell, even without any of his prior convictions he faced a statutory range of ten years to life on that count. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) (1996) (“In the case of a violation of subsection (a) of this section involving ... 50 grams or more of a mixture or substance ... which contains cocaine base ... such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 10 years or more than life.”) With any two of his three prior convictions listed in the § 851 notice, however, Gilbert faced a mandatory sen-fence of life imprisonment (without parole) on that count. See id. (“If any person commits a violation of this subparagraph ... after two or more prior convictions for a felony drug offense have become final, such person shall be sentenced to a mandatory term of life imprisonment without release.... ”). On the second count, involving possession with intent to sell marijuana, without any prior convictions Gilbert would have faced a sentence of not more than five years. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D) (1996). With one or more prior convictions for a felony drug offense he faced a sentence of not more than ten years on that count. See id.

After Gilbert’s motion to suppress was denied, he pleaded guilty in March of 1996. At the plea hearing, Gilbert admitted possessing with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of crack cocaine and more than 100 grams of marijuana. Given the prior drug convictions listed in the § 851 notice, none of which Gilbert ever denied, his guilty plea should have subjected him to a mandatory life sentence. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) (1996). But Gilbert pleaded guilty to the indictment “as originally charged without the enhancement,” meaning without “the [§] 851 enhancement.” The government did not object to Gilbert’s statement that the statutory enhancement would not be applied, and the non-application of it obviously was part of a plea agreement.1

Gilbert was sentenced on March 25, 1997. Because the government waived the *1299§ 851 notice of prior convictions, his statutory sentencing range was ten years to life imprisonment on the crack distribution count and not more than five years on the marijuana distribution count. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(A), (D) (1996). Gilbert’s base offense level was 32 because his distribution offense involved at least 50 grams but less than 150 grams of crack. See U.S.S.G. § 201.1(a)(3), (c)(4) (1995). There were no adjustments for specific characteristics of the offense, characteristics of the victim, the defendant’s role in the offense, or obstruction of justice.

Gilbert was sentenced as a career offender under § 4B1.1 based on two convictions: his June 1990 conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to sell, which was counted as “a controlled substance offense,” and his December 1994 conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, which was counted as a “crime of violence.” See id. § 4B1.1 (1995). Although Gilbert’s long criminal record included other drug charges, some of them had resulted in convictions for possession instead of distribution while a few had not resulted in convictions.2 As a result, Gilbert had only one prior conviction that met the guidelines definition of “a controlled substance offense.” See id. § 4B1.2(b) (defining “controlled substance offense” to mean a felony that involves the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance or possession with intent to do so).3 That conviction and the one for carrying a concealed weapon were the two that led to his being treated as a career offender under § 4B1.1. Because he was treated as a career offender, Gilbert’s offense level was increased from 32 to 37. See id. § 4Bl.l(b)(A) (providing for an offense level of 37 where a career offender’s current offense provides a maximum penalty of life imprisonment).4

Gilbert was given a two-point downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, see id. § 3El.l(a) (1995), bringing his adjusted offense level to 35. His criminal history category would have been V,5 but *1300the career offender provision raised it to VI because of the § 4B1.1 enhancement. See id. § 4Bl.l(b).6 The result was a guidelines range of 292 to 365 months.

If the § 4B1.1 career offender enhancement had not applied, Gilbert’s base offense level would have been 32 minus 2 levels for acceptance of responsibility, resulting in an adjusted offense level of 30. His criminal history category would not have been increased from level V, and the guidelines range would have been 151 to 188 months.

Gilbert objected on a number of grounds at sentencing, the only relevant one for present purposes being his objection to career offender treatment under the guidelines. He did not dispute that his prior conviction for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute was a “controlled substance offense,” but he did contend that his prior conviction for carrying a concealed weapon was not a “crime of violence.” In rebutting his objection, the government relied on United States v. Hall, 77 F.3d 398, 401-02 (11th Cir.1996), which held that a conviction for carrying a concealed weapon was a “violent felony” for purposes of § 4B1.4 (the armed career criminal enhancement applicable in felon-in-possession cases). See United States v. Oliver, 20 F.3d 415, 418 (11th Cir.1994) (“Precisely the same analytical framework applied by the courts in ascertaining the scope of a ‘crime of violence’ [under the career offender guideline] logically obtains with respect to the question of what kind of conduct comprises a ‘violent felony’ [under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) ].”).

The district court overruled all of Gilbert’s objections and sentenced him on March 25, 1997. Acting under the then-mandatory guidelines system, the district court sentenced Gilbert to 292 months imprisonment on the intent to distribute crack cocaine count after the judge made it abundantly clear that he would have preferred to give Gilbert a shorter term of imprisonment. The court also sentenced Gilbert to 120 months imprisonment on the intent to distribute marijuana count, to run concurrently.

C. The Post-Sentencing Procedural History

On direct appeal Gilbert raised three issues, one of which was his contention that carrying a concealed weapon was not a “crime of violence,” as defined in § 4B1.2(a), for § 4B1.1 purposes.7 See United States v. Gilbert, 138 F.3d 1371, 1372 (11th Cir.1998) (iGilbert I). This Court rejected his argument and concluded that carrying a concealed weapon “presents a serious potential risk of physical injury,” within the meaning of § 4B1.2(a)(2). Gilbert I, 138 F.3d at 1372. We denied Gilbert’s petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc, United States v. Gilbert, 156 F.3d 188 (11th Cir.1998) (unpublished table decision), which raised the issue, and the Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari, Gilbert v. *1301United States, 526 U.S. 1111, 119 S.Ct. 1754, 143 L.Ed.2d 787 (1999) (mem.), which also raised it.

In September of 1999 Gilbert filed pro se a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion raising a number of claims, none of which reiterated the contention he had already made at sentencing and on appeal that the § 4B1.1 career offender enhancement guideline should not have been applied in his case. The district court denied his § 2255 motion in July 2003.8 That court also denied Gilbert a certificate of appealability, and in June 2004 we did too.

There the matter was laid to rest, and there it rested until a series of events beginning in August 2008 led to its being exhumed. The United States Sentencing Commission had published Amendment 706 on November 1, 2007, which provided for a two-level reduction in base offense levels for crack cocaine offenses. U.S.S.G.App. C, amend. 706 (Supp.2007). That amendment, which was made retroactively applicable by Amendment 713 on March 3, 2008, allowed prisoners serving time for crack cocaine offenses to receive a reduction in their sentences. Id.; U.S.S.G.App. C, amend. 713 (Supp.2008).

On August 26, 2008, the district court on its own initiative issued an order directing the Federal Public Defender to represent Gilbert in an 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) proceeding before the court to determine whether he was entitled to have his sentence reduced under Amendment 706. The court also ordered the Probation Office to file a supplemental report in the case. After hearing from the Federal Public Defender and the United States Attorney’s Office, the court issued an order on January 21, 2009, concluding that Gilbert was not entitled to relief under Amendment 706. The court reasoned that while Amendment 706 did reduce Gilbert’s base offense level, it did not “have the effect of lowering the applicable sentencing guideline range because the career offender guideline, not the crack guideline, was applied at sentencing.” The court also briefly addressed and rejected the possibility of granting Gilbert relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 or § 2241.

Gilbert then filed through counsel what he styled a “Motion to Reopen and Amend First 28 U.S.C. § 2255 Motion” on January 28, 2009. See Gilbert v. United States, 609 F.3d 1159, 1162 (11th Cir.2010) (Gilbert II). That motion asserted the claim that the sentencing court’s application of the § 4B1.1 career offender guidelines enhancement had been error, which was the same claim that we had rejected 11 years before in our Gilbert I decision on direct appeal. As Gilbert pointed out, however, in the intervening years his position that he should not have been treated as a career offender had been vindicated. The Supreme Court had issued Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137, 128 S.Ct. 1581, 170 L.Ed.2d 490 (2008), holding that the offense of driving under the influence was not a “violent felony” within the definition contained in 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii), an ACCA enhancement provision. 553 U.S. at 148, 128 S.Ct. at 1588. And we had then extrapolated from that decision to hold in United States v. Archer, 531 F.3d 1347, 1352 (11th Cir.2008), that carrying a concealed firearm was not a “crime of violence,” as defined in § 4B1.2(a) for purposes of the § 4B1.1 career offender enhancement. In Archer, we concluded that Begay had effectively overruled our hold*1302ing in Gilbert I. See Archer, 531 F.3d at 1352.9

The problem for Gilbert was that his Archer-based claim clearly was barred by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996’s (AEDPA’s) second and successive petitions provision, 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h). By styling his pleading as one to reopen the § 2255 motion that he had filed more than 9 years before, Gilbert was attempting to avoid that statutory bar. The government opposed that specific attempt and Gilbert’s motion in general.

Gilbert urged on the district court “two vehicles” by which it could grant him relief. He argued that the court could construe his motion as one under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(5) and (b)(6) to reopen and revisit its original order denying his initial 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. In the alternative, Gilbert argued that the court could treat his motion as one for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on the theory that the savings clause of § 2255(e), as interpreted in Wofford v. Scott, 177 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir.1999), permitted it. See 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e).

The district court rejected both arguments. It concluded that Gilbert’s 60(b) argument was foreclosed by the reasoning in Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 125 S.Ct. 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005), which held that Rule 60(b) could not be used to bring a claim in a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition that would otherwise be prohibited by the § 2244(b) bar against second or successive petitions. See Gonzalez, 545 U.S. at 530-32, 125 S.Ct. at 2647-48. The district court also rejected Gilbert’s argument based on the savings clause in § 2255(e), concluding that his claim that the sentencing guidelines had been misapplied when he was sentenced 13 years before did not meet the requirements of our Wofford decision.

A panel of this Court reversed the district court’s denial of relief. See Gilbert II, 609 F.3d at 1168. Without addressing the Rule 60(b) issue, the panel decided that the savings clause contained in § 2255(e) authorized Gilbert to bring his Begay/Archer claim in a § 2241 petition notwithstanding (or perhaps because of) the § 2255(h) bar on second or successive motions. Id. at 1165-68. We granted rehearing en banc, Gilbert v. United States, 625 F.3d 716 (11th Cir.2010), and now affirm the district court’s denial of relief.

II. DISCUSSION

Gilbert’s savings clause contention requires much more discussion than his Rule 60(b) one, so we will address it first. Before doing that, however, we need to address some assumptions the parties make that relate to the issues we will be deciding.

A. Assumptions About the Effect of the Error in Calculating Gilbert’s Sentence

Gilbert’s arguments presume that if Be-gay and Archer had been on the books when his case arose he would have received a lighter sentence because the career offender enhancement, which those decisions rule out for his case, did increase his mandatory guidelines range. His arguments also presume that if he were re-sentenced today, which is the relief he is seeking, he would receive a lighter sentence with the career offender enhancement out of the picture. We are not so sure of either proposition.

*1303Gilbert’s sentencing occurred in 1997, eight years before the decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), and while the mandatory guidelines system was still in effect. At sentencing his 1994 conviction for carrying a concealed weapon was counted as a “crime of violence” as that term is used in § 4B1.1 and defined in § 4B1.2(a). The result was that Gilbert was treated as a career offender, which did result in a much higher guidelines range— 292 to 365 months instead of 151 to 188 months.

If Begay had begotten Archer before Gilbert was sentenced and his sentence was affirmed on direct appeal, his earlier weapons conviction would not have been treated as a crime of violence under § 4B 1.2(a), and he would not have been classified as a career offender under § 4B1.1. As a result, Gilbert would have had a lower guidelines range in that preBooker, mandatory guidelines era and would have received a lower sentence if we assume that the government still would have waived its statutory right to have a mandatory life sentence imposed on him. But that is a big assumption.

On the possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute charge, Gilbert faced a mandatory life sentence under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A), which requires life imprisonment for anyone who possesses crack cocaine or other drugs with intent to distribute after being convicted of two or more felony drug offenses. The government filed a 21 U.S.C. § 851 notice listing three prior felony drug offenses that Gilbert had been convicted of before he committed the crack cocaine distribution offense in this case, all of which qualified him for the mandatory life sentence. See supra at 1298-99. Gilbert never denied the existence or validity of any of the three prior drug convictions listed in the § 851 notice (or any of his other convictions either). By failing to object to the part of the presentence report listing his prior convictions, Gilbert admitted them, see United States v. Bennett, 472 F.3d 825, 833-34 (11th Cir.2006); United States v. Wade, 458 F.3d 1273, 1277 (11th Cir.2006), and to this day he has never disputed their validity.

If the Begay decision had been on the books when Gilbert was facing these charges, the government would have known that the guidelines range he faced was 151 to 188 months instead of 292 to 365 months. Given a minimum sentence that was 141 months lower, the government might well have decided not to waive the § 851 notice and the mandatory life sentence it had an absolute right to insist on under § 841(b)(1)(A). It is one thing not to insist on a life sentence when the defendant is facing at least 292 months without the enhancement, and quite another to forgo it if he might be sentenced to less than half that much time.

While the government did waive its right to insist on a mandatory life sentence as part of a plea bargain, the record does not establish that it would have done so if it could not have counted on the career offender enhancement to double the sentence that Gilbert would receive. It is not as though the government needed a guilty plea because there was a risk of acquittal or the trial would have taken a long time. The evidence against Gilbert was overwhelming and the trial would have been short and simple. Two police officers saw Gilbert as he sold crack cocaine out of his car. Soon thereafter, when another officer approached him, Gilbert attempted to flee on foot. The charges against Gilbert were based on crack cocaine that was found in the glove compartment of his car, and marijuana that was bagged for sale and found under the seat. Even if Gilbert had wanted to take the stand and deny it all, *1304there is little or no chance a jury would have believed him given all of the evidence against him and all of his prior convictions. And the fact that Gilbert had brought his little daughter along with him while dealing drugs would have squelched any stray feelings of sympathy that the jury might otherwise have felt for him.

The point is that we cannot say with certainty that if Begay and Archer had been the law when Gilbert committed these crimes, he would have received a lesser sentence. Ironically, for the reasons we have just discussed, he might have received an even harsher one. Rather than speculate, however, we will assume for present purposes that if those two decisions had been on the books more than a decade earlier, Gilbert would have received a substantially lighter sentence then than he did — a sentence in the range of 151 to 188 months instead of 292 months.10 That is, however, only an assumption.

Gilbert also presumes that if he could just get a new sentence hearing, he will receive a shorter sentence than the one he now has. We have our doubts about that. It is true that if Gilbert is resentenced the calculation of his guidelines range will be free of any Begay/Archer error and he will not be treated as a career offender. His guidelines range will be lower. There is, however, no guarantee that his new sentence under the post-Booker advisory guidelines system will be shorter than 292 months. It could be the same or even longer.

There are a number of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors in Gilbert’s case that a sentencing judge could use to vary upward substantially from the advisory guidelines range. After all, in a six-year period when he was between the ages of 19 and 25, Gilbert committed and was convicted of five drug felonies and three weapons felonies. See supra at 1296-98. He is an eight-time drug and weapons felon. And his record includes a number of occasions on which he was shown leniency in the form of dropped charges, probationary sentences, or early release. Every time Gilbert received probation, he violated it. Every time charges against him were dropped or he was released early, he immediately went back to his life of crime. And, most disturbing of all, when Gilbert committed the serious drug crimes in this case he took his five-year-old daughter along with him to watch it all. He endangered his little girl by having her in the back seat of the small car in a high crime area as crack addicts climbed into the front seat and bought drugs from him.

A sentencing judge could easily decide to vary significantly upwards from the advisory guidelines range in view of: “the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant,” § 3553(a)(1); “the need for the sentence imposed ... to reflect the seri*1305ousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, and to provide just punishment for the offense,” § 3553(a)(2)(A); and the need for the sentence “to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct,” § 3553(a)(2)(B). A sentence of 292 months, or even a life sentence, would not be unreasonable or disproportionate to the crime. See Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 1002-03, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 2705-06, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991) (plurality opinion of Kennedy, J., joined by O’Connor & Souter, JJ.)11 (discussing the great harm that the crime of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute does to society and holding that a life without parole sentence is not disproportionate even for a first time offender); United States v. Villarreal, 613 F.3d 1344, 1359-60 (11th Cir.2010) (upholding as substantively reasonable a 328-month sentence for a defendant convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana); United States v. Chavez, 584 F.3d 1354, 1366 (11th Cir.2009) (upholding as substantively reasonable a sentence of life imprisonment for a defendant convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and aiding and abetting the possession of a firearm by an illegal alien).12

Nonetheless, because it does not affect our reasoning or the result we reach, we will assume that Gilbert would receive a substantially lower sentence if he were resentenced today, just as we are assuming that his sentence would have been lower when he was sentenced in 1997 if the Begay and Archer decisions had been out at that time.

Begay and Archer were not, however, issued before Gilbert was sentenced. They were issued eleven years after Gilbert was sentenced, ten years after we affirmed his sentence on direct appeal, nine years after the Supreme Court denied certiorari review, and five years after his § 2255 motion was denied. Gilbert’s sentence had long since become final before those two decisions were issued. The question we face is whether there is a finality-shattering procedure that allows Gilbert to have his sentence vacated and entitles him to be resentenced all these years later.

B. The Savings Clause Issue

Having already unsuccessfully filed a § 2255 motion raising other issues, Gilbert concedes, and we agree, that he may not raise his Begay/Archer claim about the misapplication of the career offender guidelines in another § 2255 motion. Section 2255(h) bars second and successive motions except in two narrow circumstances, neither of which applies here. See 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(1) & (2).

Gilbert’s primary contention is that his claim is cognizable in a 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Section 2255(e), however, provides that a § 2241 petition “shall not be entertained” if the prisoner has failed to seek or has already been denied relief by § 2255 motion, as Gilbert has, “unless it also appears that the remedy by [§ 2255] motion is inadequate or ineffective to test the legality of his detention.” See 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e). The quoted exception to the § 2255(e) bar on § 2241 petitions, eom*1306monly referred to as the “savings clause,” is the focus of our issue: Does the savings clause of § 2255(e) apply to claims that the sentencing guidelines were misapplied in the pr e-Booker mandatory guidelines era in a way that resulted in a substantially longer sentence that does not exceed the statutory maximum?

1. Some Issues We Need Not Decide

The government asserts, as its first line of defense, that a guidelines misapplication claim may not be brought in any collateral attack, not even an initial one. We have no reason to decide that issue because this is not Gilbert’s first collateral attack on his sentence. He filed a § 2255 motion that was denied in 2003.13

The government concedes that a claim that a sentencing error resulted in a sentence longer than the statutory maximum may be brought in an initial § 2255 motion or, if that remedy is foreclosed by § 2255(h), in a § 2241 habeas petition by virtue of the savings clause in § 2255(e). We have no reason to decide whether to write that concession into the law of this circuit because Gilbert was not sentenced in excess of the statutory maximum for his crimes.14 We have written into our phrasing of the issue that is before us the qualification that Gilbert’s sentence did not exceed the statutory maximum. We did that in order to make it clear we are not deciding that issue, and we do not imply any view about how that issue should be decided when and if it is presented in some other case.

We do need to explain here what we mean by “statutory maximum sentence.” For each crime, Congress prescribes a punishment ceiling beyond which no defendant convicted for committing that particular crime may be sentenced regardless of the circumstances of the crime, regardless of the defendant’s history, and regardless of the sentencing guidelines. In Gilbert’s case § 841(b)(1)(A) specified a punishment range of ten years to life for the crime of possession of 50 or more grams of cocaine base with intent to distribute.15 See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) & (b)(l)(A)(iii) (1996). Life imprisonment is the statutory maximum sentence for Gilbert’s crime. See id.

That seems obvious, but attempting to bring himself within the scope of the government’s concession, Gilbert insists that the maximum sentence specified in the statute providing a punishment range for the crime of conviction is not really the statutory maximum sentence. Instead, he argues that with a pr e-Booker mandatory *1307guidelines sentence, the top of the guidelines range, as correctly calculated or recalculated to take into account any changes in case law, is the maximum statutory sentence. His reasoning is that because Congress authorized the Sentencing Commission to prescribe the sentencing guidelines and made the guidelines mandatory, they trump the statutory punishment range or at least supersede what would otherwise be the statutory maximum. We disagree. To the extent of any inconsistency, the guidelines would have to bend to statutorily prescribed limits, not the other way around. See U.S.S.G. § 5G1.1(a)-(b) (stating that when the statutory maximum is less than the minimum of the applicable guidelines range, or when the statutory minimum is greater than the maximum of the applicable guidelines range, the statutory maximum and minimum prevail); see generally United States v. Shimoda, 334 F.3d 846, 849-50 (9th Cir.2003) (rejecting defendant’s argument that sentencing guidelines were “statutes of conviction” a