[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

______ __________________ No. 16

- 16985 Non

- Argument Calendar

___________ ___________ __ D.C. Docket No s
. 4:16

- cv - 00111

- WTM

- GRS; 4:08

- cr - 00 203

- WTM

- GRS

- 1

STANLEY LEE HAYWARD , Petitioner

- Appellant ,

versus UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , Respondent

- Appellee

________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern Distric t of Georgia

________________________ (December 12, 2017) Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, MARTIN , and ANDERSON , Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM: Stanley Lee Hayward , a federal prisoner proceeding pro se , appeals the Case: 16-16985 Date Filed: 12/12/2017 Page: 1 of 52 district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to vacate, set aside , or correct his sentence. 1 He contends that the district court erred by denying his motion
because his sentence is unconstitutional in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in
Johnson v. United States , 576 U.S. ___, 135 S. Ct . 2551 (2015), which held that the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), is unconstitutionally vague.
I. Hayward pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). U nder the ACCA a defendant who violates § 922(g) and has at least three prior convictions for a “violent felony” faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years. I d. § 924(e)(1). At the time of his conviction, H ayward had three prior Georgia

conv ictions for aggravated assault . T he presentence investigation report found that
those conviction s were violent felonies without specifying whether they qua lified
under the ACCA’s elements clause or residual clause. S ee id. § 924(e)(2)(B )

. Hayward did not object to the PSR. T he district court applied the enhancement and sentenced him to 15 years in prison without s tating which of the two clause s it
relied on

.

1 The defendant has spelled his last name as “Hayward” and “Heyward.” The magistrate judge found that the former spelling is correct, amended the case caption, and ordered all subsequent filings to conform with that spelling

. W e use that spelling throughout this opinion.

Case: 16-16985 Date Filed: 12/12/2017 Page: 2 of 53 Hayward file d this § 2255 motion contending that the sentencing court relied on the residual clause when it applied the ACCA enhancement , and for that reason,
his sentence is unconstitutional in light of the Supreme Court’s Johnson decision.
See 135 S. Ct. at 2558. The district court denied his motion because it found his prior convictions qualified as violent felonies under ACCA’s elements clause,
which Johnson did not affect. See id. at 2563. It then denied his request for a
certificate of appealability. This Court granted a certificate of appealability on the issue of : “ Whether Hayward has at least three violent felonies to qualify him as an armed career criminal, absent the Armed Career Criminal Act’ s residual clause.”
II. In a § 2255 proceeding, we review de novo the district court’s legal
conclusions and its factual findings for clear error. Osley v. United States , 751 F.3d 1214, 1222 (11th Cir. 2014). W hether a prior conviction is a violent felony within the meaning of the ACCA is a question of law that we review de novo
. United States v. Howard , 742 F.3d 1334, 1341 (11th Cir. 2014). Hayward argue s that the district court erred when it found he had three qualifying prior convictions under the ACCA

. He asserts that his 1985 Georgia aggravated assault conviction is not a violent felony under the ACCA’s elements clause because the indictment for that conviction failed to cite to Georgia’s

Case: 16-16985 Date Filed: 12/12/2017 Page: 3 of 54 aggravated assault statute and failed to set forth each essential element of that statute. By attacking the underlying indictment, Hayward challenges the validity
of the 1985 conviction. He may not do so in a § 2255 motion. See Daniels v.
United States , 532 U.S. 374, 382, 121 S. Ct. 1578 , 1579

– 80 (2001) (When “a prio r conviction used to enhance a federal sentence is no longer open to direct or collateral attack in its own right because the defendant failed to pursue those remedies while they were available . . . the defendant may not collaterally attack his prior conv iction through a motion under § 2255.”).
Before the district court he also argued that none of his prior convictions support an ACCA enhancement because categorically Georgia aggravated assault does not qualify as a violent felony under the ACCA’s elements clause. Because he does not discuss that argument on appeal, he has abandoned it. See Timson v. Sampson , 518 F.3d 870, 874 (11th Cir. 2008) (“[I]ssues not briefed on appeal by a
pro se litigant are deemed abandoned.”) ; Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co. , 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014) (“We have long held that an appellant abandons a claim when he either makes only passing references to it or raises it in a perfunctory manner without supporting arguments and authority.”). 2

2 Hayward also does not point to any evidence that the sentencing court in fact relied on the residual clause when it concluded his prior conv ictions are violent felonies. Without that evidence, he cannot show that his sentence was unconstitutional under Johnson

. See Beeman v. United States , 817 F.3d 1215, ___ (11th Cir. 2017) (holding that “[t]o prove a Johnson claim, the movant must show tha t

— more likely than not

— it was use of the residual clause that led to the sentencing court’s enhancement of his sentence.”).

Case: 16-16985 Date Filed: 12/12/2017 Page: 4 of 55 AFFIRMED. Case: 16-16985 Date Filed: 12/12/2017 Page: 5 of 5