United Statesv.Harlan Salmona
Harlan Salmona asked the district court to enforce a decades-old plea agreement provision requiring the federal government to let him serve his Florida life sentence in federal custody. The agreement required truthful cooperation, and Salmona later admitted that he had fabricated grand- and petit-jury testimony and pleaded guilty to perjury. The Eleventh Circuit held that Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 did not confer jurisdiction to enforce the agreement and that the motion was not an appeal from the earlier federal conviction. Assuming without deciding that mandamus jurisdiction could apply, the court concluded Salmona had no clear right to relief because whether his breach discharged the government’s custody obligation was disputed. It set aside the judgment and sent the matter back for dismissal because the district court lacked jurisdiction. Judge Martin concurred, concluding that the perjury was a material breach that released the government from its custody obligation.
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