Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-17-03266/USCOURTS-ca10-17-03266-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Pedro C. Garcia
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT 

_________________________________ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff - Appellee, 

v. 

PEDRO C. GARCIA, 

 Defendant - Appellant. 

No. 17-3266 

(D.C. Nos. 6:17-CV-01011-JTM & 

6:12-CR-10089-JTM-2) 

(D. Kan.) 

_________________________________ 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT

_________________________________ 

Before LUCERO, BALDOCK, and MORITZ, Circuit Judges. 

_________________________________ 

In 2013, a jury convicted Pedro C. Garcia of conspiring with other members of a 

criminal gang to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO); 

committing various violent crimes, including murder in violation of Kansas law, in aid of 

racketeering; and two counts of possessing and brandishing or discharging a firearm in 

furtherance of crimes of violence (murder and aggravated robbery), in violation of 

18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). In 2014, the district court sentenced him to life imprisonment 



 After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined 

unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this 

appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered 

submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, 

except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may 

be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 

10th Cir. R. 32.1. 

FILED 

United States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

April 23, 2020

Christopher M. Wolpert 

Clerk of Court

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plus a mandatory, consecutive term of 32 years for the § 924(c)(1)(A) violations. This 

court affirmed, see United States v. Garcia, 793 F.3d 1194, 1199 (10th Cir. 2015), and 

the Supreme Court denied review, Garcia v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 860 (2016). 

Within one year of the date on which Garcia’s conviction became final, he filed a 

pro se motion for postconviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.1

 The district court 

denied the motion and Garcia’s motion to alter or amend its judgment, but it granted a 

certificate of appealability (COA) on one issue—whether “the court’s murder instruction 

[relating to Garcia’s Count 6 conviction] was erroneous under Johnson [v. United States, 

135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015)]” (Johnson II). R., Vol. II at 257. Still pro se, Garcia has filed a 

combined COA application and opening brief, seeking to expand the COA to include two 

other issues: (1) the district erred in determining that his “challenge as to Count 9 

[regarding his § 924(c)(1)(A) conviction] (and Count 6) was procedurally defaulted 

because that challenge was based on Johnson [II]”; and (2) the denial of relief on his 

“due process claim that the prosecutor committed misconduct is for[e]closed.” Opening 

1

 Section 2255(f) provides a one-year limitations period for § 2255 motions. One 

way to measure that period is from “the date on which the judgment of conviction 

becam[e] final.” § 2255(f)(1). Garcia’s conviction became final when the Supreme 

Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari on January 11, 2016. See United States v. 

Prows, 448 F.3d 1223, 1227 (10th Cir. 2006) (“In the context of the one-year limitation 

period for filing a § 2255 motion, a criminal conviction becomes final when the Supreme 

Court affirms it on direct review, denies certiorari, or (in the absence of a certiorari 

petition) the time for filing a certiorari petition expires.”). Garcia’s § 2255 motion bears 

a district-court file stamp dated January 13, 2017, which is beyond the (f)(1) period, but 

under the prison-mailbox rule, we conclude that his motion was timely under 

§ 2255(f)(1). See Price v. Philpot, 420 F.3d 1158, 1166 (10th Cir. 2005) (explaining 

parameter of prison-mailbox rule). 

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Br. at 2 (most capitalization omitted). He also seeks leave to proceed without 

prepayment of costs and fees (IFP). Construing Garcia’s pro se filings liberally, but 

without acting as his advocate, see Yang v. Archuleta, 525 F.3d 925, 927 n.1 (10th Cir. 

2008), we (1) affirm the denial of relief on the Count 6 murder-instruction issue; (2) grant 

a COA on his Count 9 claim, reverse the denial of relief on that claim, and remand for 

further proceedings; and (3) deny a COA on his prosecutorial-misconduct claim. We also 

grant IFP. 

I. Issue on which COA was granted

A. District court proceedings concerning Count 6 

 Count 6 of the indictment charged Garcia with possessing and discharging a 

firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). 

The district court instructed the jury that the predicate crime charged in Count 6, 

first-degree murder in violation of Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5402, “is a crime of violence.” 

Supp. R., Vol. 1 at 59. For purposes of § 924(c)(1)(A), a “crime of violence” is “an 

offense that is a felony” that “(A) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened 

use of physical force against the person or property of another” or “(B) that by its nature, 

involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another 

may be used in the course of committing the offense.” § 924(c)(3). We refer to 

§ 924(c)(3)(A) as the “elements” clause (Garcia calls it the “force” clause), and to 

§ 924(c)(3)(B) as the “residual clause.” 

While Garcia’s direct appeal was pending, the Supreme Court decided Johnson II, 

holding unconstitutionally vague a similar residual clause in the definition of “violent 

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felony” in the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA)—“any crime punishable by 

imprisonment for a term exceeding one year . . . that . . . otherwise involves conduct that 

presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another,” 18 U.S.C. 

§ 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). 135 S. Ct. at 2557. 

In his § 2255 motion, Garcia’s entire argument regarding the Count 6 instruction 

was: “Per the holding in Johnson murder is not categorically a ‘crime of violence’ within 

the meaning of § 924(c)(3)(B) since physical force is not required to be held accountable 

for the offense of murder.” R., Vol. II at 141. The district court decided the claim was 

procedurally defaulted because Garcia did not present good cause for failing to raise it on 

direct appeal. In the alternative, the court determined the claim had no merit. The court 

concluded Garcia failed to show how the crime charged was not a crime of violence 

because Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5402(a)(1) “defines murder in the first degree as a killing of 

a human being intentionally and with premeditation,” and the jury had returned a special 

verdict finding Garcia had committed first degree murder. R., Vol. II at 211. 

B. Standard of review

The district court did not hold an evidentiary hearing where it made findings, so 

our review is de novo. See United States v. Copeland, 921 F.3d 1233, 1242 (10th Cir. 

2019). 

C. Discussion 

In his opening appellate brief, Garcia contends that Kansas first degree murder 

cannot qualify as a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause because that 

clause is unconstitutionally vague under the reasoning of Johnson II. He also argues the 

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murder instruction was erroneous because the term “physical force” as used in 

§ 924(c)(3)’s elements clause means “violent force” under the reasoning of Johnson v. 

United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010) (Johnson I). In Johnson I, the Supreme Court 

construed the ACCA’s elements clause, § 924(e)(2)(B)(i), which defines a “violent 

felony” as a felony that “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of 

physical force against the person of another.” The Court held that in defining “violent 

felony,” “the phrase ‘physical force’ means violent force—that is, force capable of 

causing physical pain or injury to another person.” Johnson I, 559 U.S. at 140.

Relying on Johnson I’s holding, Garcia argues that first degree murder under Kan. 

Stat. Ann. § 21-5402(a) does not require any “violent force” at all because it can be 

committed by poisoning, and under controlling case law at the time of his sentencing, 

murder by poisoning did not require violent physical force. In his reply brief, Garcia 

clarifies that the “essence” of his claim concerning Count 6 is that his murder conviction 

could only qualify as a crime of violence under the residual clause because it does not 

require the use of physical force necessary to satisfy the elements clause, and the residual 

clause is unconstitutionally vague under Johnson II and our decision in United States v. 

Salas, 889 F.3d 681 (10th Cir. 2018), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 2773 (2019).2

 In Salas, we 

held that § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause is unconstitutional under Sessions v. Dimaya, 

138 S. Ct. 1204, 1213-16 (2018), where the Supreme Court extended Johnson II’s 

2

 We decided Salas after Garcia filed his opening brief in this appeal. 

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reasoning to hold that a similarly worded clause in the definition of “violent felony” in 

18 U.S.C. § 16(b) was unconstitutionally vague. Salas, 889 F.3d at 684–86. 

The government advances a number of procedural reasons why we should not 

entertain the merits of this argument, but we need not sort those out because none are 

jurisdictional and it’s clear the argument loses on the merits. See Brown v. Sirmons, 

515 F.3d 1072, 1092-93 (10th Cir. 2008) (holding that for efficiency, we can avoid 

questions of procedural bar if it is easier to rule on the merits); Proctor & Gamble Co. v. 

Haugen, 222 F.3d 1262, 1271 (10th Cir. 2000) (noting this court’s discretion to depart 

from general rule that we do not consider matters not raised or argued in the district court 

“[w]here the issue is purely a matter of law and its proper resolution is certain” (ellipses 

and internal quotation marks omitted)). 

Our merits analysis proceeds from the observation that in United States v. Davis, 

139 S. Ct. 2319, 2336 (2019), the Supreme Court confirmed what Salas held—that like 

the ACCA residual clause at issue in Johnson II, § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause, 

“§ 924(c)(3)(B)[,] is unconstitutionally vague.”3

 And we have said that “in striking down 

§ 924(c)(3)(B) as void for vagueness, Davis created a new constitutional rule,” United 

States v. Bowen, 936 F.3d 1091, 1098 (10th Cir. 2019), that is “retroactively applicable to 

cases on collateral review,” id. at 1100. Further, we will assume, for the sake of 

argument, that Garcia’s § 924(c)(1)(A) conviction rested on the residual clause. See 

Bowen, 936 F.3d at 1108-09 (examining whether conviction “rested on § 924(c)(3)’s 

3

 The Supreme Court decided Davis after the parties in this appeal completed their 

briefing. 

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residual clause” in order to determine if district court’s reliance on that clause was 

harmless in light of fact that conviction did not categorically qualify under elements 

clause). Based on that assumption, we conclude that the district court erred in relying on 

the residual clause because Garcia’s “conviction was imposed under an invalid—indeed, 

unconstitutional—legal theory, and that [he] was, therefore, convicted in violation of the 

Constitution.” Id. at 1108 (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted). 

We now must determine if the error in the jury instruction was harmless by 

considering whether it “‘had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining 

the jury’s verdict.’” Id. at 1109 (quoting Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637 

(1993)). Davis harmless-error review requires us to look at whether Garcia’s murder 

conviction would qualify as a crime of violence under the elements clause based on the 

current state of the law, not on what the law was at the time of sentencing. See United 

States v. Lewis, 904 F.3d 867, 873 (10th Cir. 2018) (“We apply current law . . . because 

Johnson [II] harmless error review goes to the question of remedies . . . .”). 

The Kansas first-degree-murder statute provides: “(a) Murder in the first degree is 

the killing of a human being committed: (1) Intentionally, and with premeditation; or 

(2) in the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight from any inherently dangerous 

felony.” Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5402(a).4

 Garcia argues this statute does not qualify as a 

4

 The parties debate whether § 21-5402(a) is a divisible statute and whether we 

should apply the categorical or the modified-categorical approach to determine if 

Garcia’s murder conviction qualifies as a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)’s elements 

clause. We need not resolve this debate because Garcia’s argument fails under either 

approach. But we note (without deciding) that the statute itself strongly indicates it is not

divisible. See § 21-5402(d) (“Murder in the first degree as defined in subsection (a)(2) is 

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crime of violence under the elements clause in § 924(c)(3)(A) because first-degree 

murder can be accomplished by poisoning, which does not require the use of violent 

physical force. 

We disagree. In two recent cases we have definitively rejected the argument that 

poisoning does not require the use of violent physical force. In United States v. 

Ontiveros, 875 F.3d 533, 536-38 (10th Cir. 2017), we explained that the Supreme Court’s 

decision in United States v. Castleman, 572 U.S. 157 (2014), fatally undermined 

contrary, earlier Tenth Circuit precedent on this point, including a case Garcia relies on 

here, United States v. Rodriguez-Enriquez, 518 F.3d 1191 (10th Cir. 2008). See also 

United States v. McCranie, 889 F.3d 677, 679 (10th Cir. 2018) (recognizing that 

Ontiveros “overruled” Rodriguez-Enriquez based on Castleman), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 

1260 (2019). Although Ontiveros concerned whether the “use of physical force” 

rendered an offense a crime of violence under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a), see 875 F.3d at 535, 

we extended Ontiveros’s reasoning to § 924(c)(3)(A) in United States v. 

Melgar-Cabrera, 892 F.3d 1053, 1066 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 494 (2018). 

To the extent Garcia relies on dictum in Rummel v. Estelle, 445 U.S. 263 (1980), it is not 

controlling in light of Castleman.

5

an alternative method of proving murder in the first degree and is not a separate crime 

from murder in the first degree as defined in subsection (a)(1).”); see also Mathis v. 

United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243, 2256 (2016) (“[A] statute may itself identify which things 

must be charged (and so are elements) and which need not be (and so are means).”). 

5

 The Rummel dictum Garcia points to is a comment that “Caesar’s death at the 

hands of Brutus and his fellow conspirators was undoubtedly violent; the death of 

Hamlet’s father at the hands of his brother, Claudius, by poison, was not.” Rummel, 

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Because Garcia has failed to show that first-degree murder in violation of Kan. 

Stat. Ann. § 5402(a) is not a crime of violence as defined in § 924(c)(3)(A)’s elements 

clause, any error by the district court in relying on § 924(c)(3)(B)’s residual clause, 

recognized as unconstitutionally vague in Davis and Salas, was harmless under Brecht. 

We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of § 2255 relief on Garcia’s 

jury-instruction issue. 

II. Issues on which COA was not granted 

Garcia seeks a COA on two additional issues. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1)(B) 

(requiring COA to appeal final order in a § 2255 proceeding). Those issues are whether 

(1) his “challenge as to Count 9 (and Count 6) was procedurally defaulted because that 

challenge was based on Johnson [II]”; and (2) his “due process claim that the prosecutor 

committed misconduct is for[e]closed.” Opening Br. at 2 (typeface altered). 

A COA may issue “only if the [petitioner] has made a substantial showing of the 

denial of a constitutional right.” § 2253(c)(2). The district court held that these two 

issues were procedurally defaulted. Therefore, to obtain a COA, Garcia must show “that 

jurists of reason would find it debatable whether [those grounds] state[] a valid claim of 

the denial of a constitutional right and . . . whether the district court was correct in its 

procedural ruling.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000). “The COA inquiry . . . 

is not coextensive with a merits analysis,” and should be conducted “without full 

445 U.S. at 282 n.27 (emphasis added). The majority opinion made this comment in 

rejecting the dissenting opinion’s view that there are objective standards for imposing 

more severe penalties if a crime involves violence. 

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consideration of the factual or legal bases adduced in support of the claims.” Buck v. 

Davis, 137 S. Ct. 759, 773 (2017) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

A. Johnson II challenge to Count 96

The jury convicted Garcia of Count 9, possessing and brandishing a firearm in 

furtherance of a crime of violence in violation of § 924(c)(1)(A). Count 9 charged that 

Garcia 

did knowingly possess firearms and brandish firearms, in furtherance of a 

crime of violence for which [he] may be prosecuted in a court of the United 

States, to wit: 18 U.S.C. §1951 and 18 U.S.C. §1959, referencing 

Aggravated Robbery, in violation of Kan. Stat. Ann. §21-5420(b)(1) 

(formerly §21-3427). 

In violation of Title 18, United States Code, 924(c)(1)(A) and 

Section 2. 

R., Vol. II at 61-62.7

 The district court instructed the jury that to convict Garcia on 

Count 9, it had to find he “committed the crime of aggravated robbery as charged in 

count 9 of the indictment, which is a crime of violence.” Supp. R., Vol. 1 at 60 

(emphasis added). 

In his § 2255 motion, Garcia made two arguments regarding Count 9: 

(1) § 924(c)(1)(A) applies only where the predicate “crime of violence” is one for which 

6

 Garcia’s request for a COA on this issue also challenges the district court’s 

application of procedural default to Count 6. Because we have overlooked procedural 

default on the Count 6 issue and affirmed the denial of relief on the merits, we confine 

our analysis here to Count 9. 

7

 Section 1951 is Hobbs Act robbery, and § 1959 is the VICAR (violent crimes in 

aid of racketeering) statute, which punishes certain types of crimes committed in aid of a 

racketeering activity, see § 1959(a). The indictment contained no separate counts of 

either Hobbs Act robbery or Kansas aggravated robbery. 

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a “person may be prosecuted in a court of the United States,” § 924(c)(1)(A), but Kansas 

aggravated robbery is not prosecutable in federal court; and (2) Kansas aggravated 

robbery “is not categorically a ‘crime of violence’ within the meaning of § 924(c)(3)(B) 

per the holding in Johnson [II],” R., Vol. II at 141. The district court addressed only the 

first of these two arguments, concluding it was procedurally defaulted because Garcia 

could have raised it at trial or on direct appeal. Id. at 210. In the alternative, the court 

determined the argument lacked merit. The court did not address the Johnson II

component of Garcia’s argument regarding Count 9, yet it treated the entirety of the 

Count 9 argument as procedurally defaulted and did not provide an alternative merits 

analysis of the Johnson II challenge. 

 In seeking a COA on this issue, Garcia contests only the district court’s 

application of procedural bar to the Johnson II part of this issue, faulting the district court 

for not actually examining whether that part was procedurally barred. He claims that if 

the court had applied Johnson II, it would have found that aggravated robbery under Kan. 

Stat. Ann. § 5420(b)(1) “is not a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) after 

Johnson [II].” Aplt. Opening Br. at 7.8

 The thrust of Garcia’s appellate argument is that 

8

 Garcia makes two other arguments based on Count 9’s reference to Hobbs Act 

robbery and § 1959: “Hobbs Act Robbery is not a crime of violence under . . . § 924(c),” 

and “a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(4) . . . is also not a ‘crime of violence[’] under . . . 

§ 924(c).” Aplt. Opening Br. at 7. We need not address these arguments because it 

appears neither Hobbs Act robbery nor § 1959 was the basis for the § 924(c)(1)(A) 

conviction. As noted, the jury was instructed that to convict Garcia on Count 9, it had to 

find he committed “aggravated robbery.” Supp. R., Vol. 1 at 60. And at the 

jury-instruction conference, the government commented that “the violent crime [in 

Count 9] was plead as an aggravated robbery, a state aggravated robbery.” Id., Vol. 2 

at 47 (emphasis added). 

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if § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause is void for vagueness and his conviction for Kansas 

aggravated robbery is not a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)’s elements clause, then 

his Count 9 conviction was based on an act that is not a crime of violence within the 

meaning of § 924(c)(1)(A). Because Davis has now confirmed that § 924(c)(3)’s residual 

clause is unconstitutionally vague, we can restate Garcia’s argument as follows: His 

Count 9 conviction is valid only if, at the time he was convicted, Kansas aggravated 

robbery was a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)’s elements clause. 

We think reasonable jurists could debate whether the district court’s procedural 

ruling was wrong and whether Garcia has a facially valid claim of the denial of a 

constitutional right. We therefore grant a COA on this issue and undertake full 

consideration of whether Garcia can overcome procedural default of the Johnson II part 

of his Count 9 claim. 

1. Procedural default 

“Where a defendant has procedurally defaulted a claim by failing to raise it on 

direct review, the claim may be raised in habeas only if the defendant can first 

demonstrate either cause and actual prejudice, or that he is actually innocent.” United 

States v. Challoner, 583 F.3d 745, 749 (10th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks 

omitted). We address cause and prejudice in turn, and because we conclude there is 

cause and prejudice here, we need not consider actual innocence. 

a. Cause 

Cause excusing procedural default exists where a claim “is so novel that its legal 

basis was not reasonably available to counsel at the time of the direct appeal.” United 

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States v. Snyder, 871 F.3d 1122, 1127 (10th Cir. 2017) (brackets and internal quotation 

marks omitted)). And we have said that a Johnson II claim regarding ACCA’s residual 

clause is such a claim. Id. As Garcia points out, Johnson II was decided only eighteen 

days before this court issued its decision in his direct appeal. He could have filed a notice 

of supplemental authority in his direct appeal, but that would have required broaching a 

whole new issue that he did not first present to the district court, and it was then 

questionable whether Johnson II’s holding that ACCA’s residual clause was 

unconstitutionally vague extended to other similar residual clauses. Based on the timing 

here, it would be unfair to conclude Garcia should have raised his Johnson II issue 

regarding Count 9 as part of his direct appeal, let alone at trial. Our conclusion is 

buttressed by the fact that the source of the constitutional principle relevant to 

§ 924(c)(3)’s residual clause is not found in Johnson II but in Davis, see 139 S. Ct. 

at 2336 (holding that § 924(c)(3)’s residual clause, “§ 924(c)(3)(B)[,] is 

unconstitutionally vague”), which was decided well after Garcia’s direct appeal was final. 

Indeed, given that it is Davis that cements the viability of Garcia’s legal theory, which we 

earlier endorsed in Salas, there is cause to excuse Garcia from not raising this claim at 

trial or on direct appeal. 

We find unpersuasive the government’s argument that this is just a Johnson I

claim Garcia could have raised at trial or on direct appeal. As Garcia points out, this 

claim relies not only on Johnson I but on an extension of Johnson II to § 924(c)(3)(B), 

because to obtain relief, he must show that the predicate crime for the Count 9 conviction 

does not qualify as a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3)’s elements clause or its residual 

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clause. Absent Johnson II, and now Davis, a Johnson I argument on direct appeal would 

have failed to show that the predicate crime did not qualify under the residual clause, 

which was then a novel legal theory. 

b. Prejudice

We also conclude Garcia would be prejudiced if procedural default bars him from 

raising his Count 9 issue in his § 2255 motion. Prejudice exists where the alleged error is 

one “of constitutional dimensions that worked to [a defendant’s] actual and substantial 

disadvantage.” Snyder, 871 F.3d at 1128 (internal quotation marks omitted). If Garcia is 

correct that Kansas aggravated robbery was not a crime of violence within § 924(c)(3)’s 

elements clause at the time of his conviction, and given that Davis’s holding (that 

§ 924(c)(3)’s residual clause is unconstitutional) is retroactively applicable to cases on 

collateral review per Bowen, 936 F.3d at 1100, then Garcia’s Count 9 conviction was 

“not authorized by law,” which “is certainly an actual and substantial disadvantage of 

constitutional dimensions,” Snyder, 871 F.3d at 1128 (internal quotation marks omitted). 

The assumption in the preceding sentence—that Kansas aggravated robbery was 

not a crime of violence within the elements clause at the time Garcia was convicted—

implicates a number of cases decided during the pendency of this appeal or not addressed 

in the district court. And testing the truth of the assumption is intertwined with a merits 

analysis. In the district court, neither the government nor the court addressed the merits 

of this issue, and the government does not address them on appeal. Rather than seek 

additional briefing from the parties and decide this issue in the first instance ourselves, 

we think the better course is to remand to the district court for full development and 

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consideration of the issue, including, if necessary, additional briefing from the parties on 

how (if at all) the recent developments in the law bear on the issue. Those recent 

developments include, without limitation, the Supreme Court’s decisions in Davis and 

Stokeling v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 544 (2019), and a number of our decisions, 

including, but not limited to, Bowen, United States v. Driscoll, 892 F.3d 1127, 1135 

(10th Cir. 2018) (explaining that at the merits stage of a first § 2255 motion, a movant 

“must prove that the sentencing court, more likely than not, relied on the residual 

clause”), and United States v. Bong, 913 F.3d 1252, 1259-60 (10th Cir. 2019) (holding 

that “Kansas convictions for robbery and aggravated robbery do not constitute ‘violent 

felonies’ for purposes of the ACCA”).

B. Prosecutorial misconduct

In his § 2255 motion, Garcia argued the judgment should be vacated because the 

prosecutor elicited false testimony from a key witness knowing it was false, and he failed 

to correct the false testimony, all in violation of Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264 (1959).9

 

The testimony was that of a key witness to the murder, Russell Worthey, who was also 

charged in the case, and concerned whether he had been promised anything in exchange 

for his testimony against Garcia. We discussed Worthey’s testimony about promises in 

our opinion deciding Garcia’s direct appeal, first in connection with a Brady10 claim, see 

9 Napue requires the prosecution to correct a witness’s statement they know is 

false. See 360 U.S. at 269-70. 

10 Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963), requires the prosecution to disclose 

material exculpatory evidence. 

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Garcia, 793 F.3d at 1203-07, and then in connection with a Napue claim, see id.

at 1207-09. We rejected both claims. 

The district court denied § 2255 relief on this issue, concluding it was procedurally 

barred because Garcia’s arguments “substantially replicate claims that were advanced to, 

and rejected by[,] the Tenth Circuit in the direct appeal.” R., Vol. II at 209. Garcia 

contends procedural bar does not apply because the district court misstated the arguments 

he raised on direct appeal, and this court “never considered the testimony [he focuses on] 

under Napue.” Aplt. Opening Br. at 14. 

We disagree. In our opinion deciding Garcia’s direct appeal, we considered the 

exact evidence Garcia now focuses on. See Garcia, 793 F.3d at 1204 (detailing a 

March 15, 2013 meeting between Worthey and one of the prosecutors in Garcia’s case, 

which reflected that Worthey would plead guilty to certain charges and his sentence 

would “work down from 30” years because the judge “has been very good about 

following our recommendations in the past”). We determined that the failure to disclose 

this meeting after Worthey neglected to mention it at Garcia’s trial and testified that 

nobody had promised him anything for his testimony did not constitute a Brady violation. 

See id. at 1205-07. We then considered Garcia’s Napue claim, which “closely 

resemble[d his] Brady claim,” id. at 1207, and concluded the district court had not clearly 

erred in finding either that Worthey had merely forgotten about the meeting and therefore 

had not committed perjury or that the prosecutor also had simply forgotten about the 

meeting, id. at 1209. Consequently, we rejected Garcia’s Napue claim. 

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In light of this, Garcia’s arguments fail to persuade us to issue a COA. “Under the 

law-of-the-case doctrine, courts ordinarily would refuse to reconsider arguments 

presented in a § 2255 motion that were raised and adjudicated on direct appeal.” United 

States v. Trent, 884 F.3d 985, 994-95 (10th Cir. 2018) (brackets and internal quotation 

marks omitted). We’ve recognized three very narrow exceptions to this doctrine: 

“(1) when the evidence in a subsequent trial is substantially different; (2) when 

controlling authority has subsequently made a contrary decision of the law applicable to 

such issues; or (3) when the decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest 

injustice.” Id. at 995 (internal quotation marks omitted). But Garcia has not argued that 

any of the exceptions apply, and we fail to see how any would. Therefore, reasonable 

jurists could not debate the correctness of the district court’s procedural ruling, and the 

issue is not deserving of encouragement to proceed further. Accordingly, we deny a 

COA on this issue. 

III. Conclusion 

We affirm the district court’s denial of relief on the Count 6 issue and deny a COA 

on the prosecutorial-misconduct issue. But we grant Garcia’s application to expand the 

COA with regard to the Count 9 claim, reverse the denial of § 2255 relief on that claim, 

and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with our decision. We 

also grant Garcia’s motion to proceed IFP on appeal, but he remains obligated to pay the 

full filing and docketing fees to the Clerk of the United States District Court for the 

 

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District of Kansas. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(1) (permitting litigants to avoid only 

prepayment of such fees). 

Entered for the Court 

Nancy L. Moritz 

Circuit Judge 

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