Two inmates, William Wooden and William Maxwell, achieved the rare distinction of having the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear their cases despite initially filing their petitions without legal representation. Wooden, incarcerated in an Arkansas federal prison, challenged a Sixth Circuit ruling that counted a single night of burglarizing 10 storage units as 10 prior offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act. This Act mandates a 15-year minimum sentence for gun offenders with three or more prior violent felonies or serious drug offenses. Had the ruling stood, Wooden would have been released in 2028; otherwise, he would have been released by 2016.
Wooden's petition caught the attention of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer when the Supreme Court requested the government to respond. Senior associate Andrew Tutt noticed this request and, after discovering a split in appeals courts on the issue, the firm reached out to Wooden. Arnold & Porter lawyers Allon Kedem, Andrew Tutt, and Michael Roig subsequently helped secure the grant of certiorari, allowing Wooden a chance at an earlier release. Similarly, Texas prisoner William Maxwell also saw his pro se petition granted by the Supreme Court.
While thousands of petitions are filed with the Supreme Court annually, fewer than 100 are granted, making pro se grants particularly uncommon. Jona Goldschmidt, a professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago who studies pro se filings, noted their infrequency. This highlights the significant hurdle overcome by both Wooden and Maxwell in bringing their cases to the nation's highest court without initial legal counsel.
