Opinion ID: 4534345
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the seventh circuit’s ruling in dotson

Text: The Seventh Circuit recently confronted its own version of Mr. Tribue’s case. Steven Dotson received an ACCA sentence based on a discrete list of three predicates, one of which may no longer qualify as an ACCA predicate. Dotson, 949 F.3d at 319. The Seventh Circuit denied Mr. Dotson’s petition for habeas corpus but did so in a way that highlights the mistaken approach our circuit has taken. The question in Dotson was whether “fundamental unfairness arising from a lack of notice” resulted from the substitution of a new conviction as an ACCA predicate that had not been mentioned at the time of sentencing. Id. at 320. The Seventh Circuit held that no unfairness resulted for Mr. Dotson because his own legal filings “reflect[ed] the belief, albeit a mistaken one,” that the additional predicate counted “as a qualifying ACCA predicate at the original sentencing.” Id. at 321. Because Mr. Dotson could not credibly claim “undue surprise from allowing the substitution of a particular felony conviction not relied upon at sentencing,” the court rejected his petition. Id. The Seventh Circuit expressly disagreed with the “broader strokes” the Tribue panel used “in deciding the same question.” Id. Our sister circuit recognized that this Court’s holding in Tribue does not take account of the unfairness resulting from lack of notice to the defendant. Id. The Dotson court 21 Case: 18-10579 Date Filed: 05/14/2020 Page: 22 of 23 also agreed with the Fourth Circuit’s concerns regarding “the unfairness of the defendant having no notice—no reason at sentencing—to believe the court or government may react to a change in the law favorable to the defendant by relying on another of his prior convictions to preserve the ACCA sentence.” Id. Holding the government to its representations at sentencing—or, at least, what the defendant believed those to be—is a matter of due process. See id. Both the Fourth and Seventh Circuits thus reject the approach our Court took in Mr. Tribue’s case—where the first time any party mentioned the possibility of relying on a new and different conviction to justify Tribue’s ACCA sentence was after he filed his § 2255 petition.