Opinion ID: 216980
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Post-Sentencing Procedural History

Text: On direct appeal Gilbert raised three issues, one of which was his contention that carrying a concealed weapon was not a crime of violence, as defined in § 4B1.2(a), for § 4B1.1 purposes. [7] See United States v. Gilbert, 138 F.3d 1371, 1372 (11th Cir.1998) ( Gilbert I ). This Court rejected his argument and concluded that carrying a concealed weapon presents a serious potential risk of physical injury, within the meaning of § 4B1.2(a)(2). Gilbert I, 138 F.3d at 1372. We denied Gilbert's petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc, United States v. Gilbert, 156 F.3d 188 (11th Cir.1998) (unpublished table decision), which raised the issue, and the Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari. Gilbert v. United States, 526 U.S. 1111, 119 S.Ct. 1754, 143 L.Ed.2d 787 (1999) (mem.), which also raised it. In September of 1999 Gilbert filed pro se a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion raising a number of claims, none of which reiterated the contention he had already made at sentencing and on appeal that the § 4B1.1 career offender enhancement guideline should not have been applied in his case. The district court denied his § 2255 motion in July 2003. [8] That court also denied Gilbert a certificate of appealability, and in June 2004 we did too. There the matter was laid to rest, and there it rested until a series of events beginning in August 2008 led to its being exhumed. The United States Sentencing Commission had published Amendment 706 on November 1, 2007, which provided for a two-level reduction in base offense levels for crack cocaine offenses. U.S.S.G.App. C, amend. 706 (Supp.2007). That amendment, which was made retroactively applicable by Amendment 713 on March 3, 2008, allowed prisoners serving time for crack cocaine offenses to receive a reduction in their sentences. Id.; U.S.S.G.App. C, amend. 713 (Supp.2008). On August 26, 2008, the district court on its own initiative issued an order directing the Federal Public Defender to represent Gilbert in an 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) proceeding before the court to determine whether he was entitled to have his sentence reduced under Amendment 706. The court also ordered the Probation Office to file a supplemental report in the case. After hearing from the Federal Public Defender and the United States Attorney's Office, the court issued an order on January 21, 2009, concluding that Gilbert was not entitled to relief under Amendment 706. The court reasoned that while Amendment 706 did reduce Gilbert's base offense level, it did not have the effect of lowering the applicable sentencing guideline range because the career offender guideline, not the crack guideline, was applied at sentencing. The court also briefly addressed and rejected the possibility of granting Gilbert relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 or § 2241. Gilbert then filed through counsel what he styled a Motion to Reopen and Amend First 28 U.S.C. § 2255 Motion on January 28, 2009. See Gilbert v. United States, 609 F.3d 1159, 1162 (11th Cir.2010) ( Gilbert II ). That motion asserted the claim that the sentencing court's application of the § 4B1.1 career offender guidelines enhancement had been error, which was the same claim that we had rejected 11 years before in our Gilbert I decision on direct appeal. As Gilbert pointed out, however, in the intervening years his position that he should not have been treated as a career offender had been vindicated. The Supreme Court had issued Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137, 128 S.Ct. 1581, 170 L.Ed.2d 490 (2008), holding that the offense of driving under the influence was not a violent felony within the definition contained in 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii), an ACCA enhancement provision. 553 U.S. at 148, 128 S.Ct. at 1588. And we had then extrapolated from that decision to hold in United States v. Archer, 531 F.3d 1347, 1352 (11th Cir.2008), that carrying a concealed firearm was not a crime of violence, as defined in § 4B1.2(a) for purposes of the § 4B1.1 career offender enhancement. In Archer, we concluded that Begay had effectively overruled our holding in Gilbert I. See Archer, 531 F.3d at 1352. [9] The problem for Gilbert was that his Archer -based claim clearly was barred by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996's (AEDPA's) second and successive petitions provision, 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h). By styling his pleading as one to reopen the § 2255 motion that he had filed more than 9 years before, Gilbert was attempting to avoid that statutory bar. The government opposed that specific attempt and Gilbert's motion in general. Gilbert urged on the district court two vehicles by which it could grant him relief. He argued that the court could construe his motion as one under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(5) and (b)(6) to reopen and revisit its original order denying his initial 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. In the alternative, Gilbert argued that the court could treat his motion as one for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 on the theory that the savings clause of § 2255(e), as interpreted in Wofford v. Scott, 177 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir.1999), permitted it. See 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e). The district court rejected both arguments. It concluded that Gilbert's 60(b) argument was foreclosed by the reasoning in Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 125 S.Ct. 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005), which held that Rule 60(b) could not be used to bring a claim in a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition that would otherwise be prohibited by the § 2244(b) bar against second or successive petitions. See Gonzalez, 545 U.S. at 530-32, 125 S.Ct. at 2647-48. The district court also rejected Gilbert's argument based on the savings clause in § 2255(e), concluding that his claim that the sentencing guidelines had been misapplied when he was sentenced 13 years before did not meet the requirements of our Wofford decision. A panel of this Court reversed the district court's denial of relief. See Gilbert II, 609 F.3d at 1168. Without addressing the Rule 60(b) issue, the panel decided that the savings clause contained in § 2255(e) authorized Gilbert to bring his Begay/Archer claim in a § 2241 petition notwithstanding (or perhaps because of) the § 2255(h) bar on second or successive motions. Id. at 1165-68. We granted rehearing en banc, Gilbert v. United States, 625 F.3d 716 (11th Cir.2010), and now affirm the district court's denial of relief.