Ade Lawrence v. United States

Whether a court of appeals misapplies 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b)(3)(C) and 2255(h)(1) by denying authorization to file a second or successive § 2255 motion where newly discovered evidence, accepted as true, makes a prima facie showing that the Government conceded the inapplicability of the sole charged statute, substituted an uncharged theory of guilt, and therefore demonstrates that no reasonable factfinder could have found the petitioner guilty.

Whether a conviction may stand, and be insulated from any district court review, where at a critical pretrial stage the Government abandoned the charged statute, proceeded on an unchaiged and unauthorized theory of liability, and defense counsel entirely failed to object—a complete breakdown of the adversarial process that constitutes a constructive denial of counsel under United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 (1984).