A vehicle for addressing Booker retroactivity (and Teague)

I received today a copy of a cert petition flagging another set of interesting sentencing-related issues for the Supreme Court.  The petition (which can be downloaded below) was filed in Soto v. US, and raises questions about the applicability to Teague and the retroactivity of Booker.  Here are the questions presented from the petition:

1. Does the retroactivity test applied in habeas corpus challenges to state judgments of conviction, as set forth in Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288 (1989), limit the availability of relief on a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 asserting that a federal sentence must be corrected due to error under United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005)?

2. If Teague is applicable, did Booker announce a “watershed rule” of criminal procedure in holding that sentences imposed under the mandatory United States Sentencing Guidelines are constitutionally infirm unless every fact essential to sentence was proved beyond a reasonable doubt?

Download soto_petition_with_appendix.pdf

Some related SCOTUS posts:

• A big SCOTUS sentencing Term in the works?
• Amazingly interesting case for Fed Courts law geeks (like me)
• When will SCOTUS address the constitutionality of the death penalty for child rape?
• Serious SCOTUS sentencing fun soon to begin
• Apprendi / Blakely Retroactivity index