Opinion ID: 8704051
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timeliness of Ingram’s Unlawful Sentence Enhancement Claim

Text: The Court construes Ingram’s unlawful sentence enhancement claim as being asserted pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, which permits a person in custody under sentence by a federal court to “move the court which imposed the sentence to vacate, set aside or correct the sentence,” on the grounds that “the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States, ... that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or is otherwise subject to collateral attack.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(a). If the reviewing court finds that any of these grounds exist, it “shall vacate and set the judgment aside and shall discharge the prisoner or resentence him or grant a new trial or correct the sentence as may appear appropriate.” Id. § 2255(b). “28 U.S.C. § 2255(f) sets a one-year limitation for filing a motion pursuant to this section and establishes that the limitation will run from the latest of four enumerated circumstances.” United States v. McDade, 699 F.3d 499, 503 (D.C.Cir.2012). Specifically, the statute provides that: The limitation period shall run from the latest of— (1) the date on which the judgment of conviction becomes final; (2) the date on which the impediment to making a motion created by governmental action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States is removed, if the movant was prevented from making a motion by such governmental action; (3) the date on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if that right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review; or (4) the date on which the facts supporting the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence. 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f). “In most cases, the operative date from which the limitation period is measured will be the one identified in [§ 2255(f)(1) ]: ‘the date on which the judgment of conviction becomes final.’ ” Dodd v. United States, 545 U.S. 353, 357, 125 S.Ct. 2478, 162 L.Ed.2d 343 (2005) (citation omitted). In this case, there is no dispute that Ingram filed his motion more than one year after this Court’s judgment became final. Where, as here, “a federal criminal defendant does not appeal to the court of appeals, the judgment becomes final upon the expiration of the period in which the defendant could have appealed to the court of appeals.” Sanchez-Castellano v. United States, 358 F.3d 424, 427 (6th Cir.2004); accord Murphy v. United States, 634 F.3d 1303, 1307 (11th Cir.2011); United States v. Plascencia, 537 F.3d 385, 388 (5th Cir.2008); United States v. Prows, 448 F.3d 1223, 1227-28 (10th Cir. 2006); Moshier v. United States, 402 F.3d 116, 118 (2d Cir.2005); Kapral v. United States, 166 F.3d 565, 577 (3d Cir.1999); cf. Clay v. United States, 537 U.S. 522, 527, 123 S.Ct. 1072, 155 L.Ed.2d 88 (2003) (“Finality attaches when this Court affirms a conviction on the merits on direct review or denies a petition for a writ of certiorari, or when the time for filing a certiorari petition expires.”). This Court entered judgment on July 28, 2008. See ECF No. 210. Under the then-applicable version of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Ingram had ten. days to file an appeal, i.e., until August 7, 2008. See Fed. R.App. P. 4(b)(1)(A) (2005). 1 He filed no appeal, so his conviction became “final” on August 7, 2008. Applying § 2255(f)’s one-year limitation period, Ingram had until August 7, 2009, to file his motion. But Ingram filed his motion on November 28, 2011, see Def.’s Mot. at 1, more than two years after this deadline. Accordingly, Ingram’s § 2255 motion must be deemed untimely if the one-year limitation period began to run on “the date on which the judgment of conviction [became] final.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(1). Recognizing this obstacle, Ingram invokes an alternative trigger to § 2255’s one-year statute of limitations, see Def.’s Mot. at 12, which provides that the limitation period begins to run on “the date on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if that right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review,” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3). Ingram asserts that his motion is timely under § 2255(f)(3) in light of intervening case law limiting the circumstances under which a sentence may be enhanced under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1) based on prior felony drug convictions. See Def.’s Mot. at 12. Ingram identifies the Fourth Circuit’s panel decision in United States v. Simmons, 635 F.3d 140 (4th Cir.2011), as the source of his purported “newly recognized” right. Def.’s Mot. at 1. However, the government asserts, and the Court agrees, that Ingram’s claim is more accurately supported by Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2577, 177 L.Ed.2d 68 (2010), and the en banc decision of the Fourth Circuit in United States v. Simmons, 649 F.3d 237 (4th Cir.2011), which vacated the panel decision upon which Ingram relies. The defendant in Simmons pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in federal court and was subjected to a sentencing enhancement pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1) because the district court found that his prior state conviction for marijuana possession was a “ ‘felony drug offense’ for purposes of applying the mandatory minimum sentences authorized in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D).” United States v. Simmons, 340 Fed.Appx. 141, 142 (4th Cir.2009). The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment, id., but the Supreme Court, in a brief memorandum decision, vacated that judgment and remanded the case to the Fourth Circuit “for further consideration in light of Carachuri. .. Simmons v. United States, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 3455, 177 L.Ed.2d 1048 (2010). In Carachuri, the Supreme Court held that the question of whether a prior conviction is an “aggravated felony” within the meaning of the Immigration and Nationality Act must be resolved by looking at the offense for which the defendant was actually convicted, not the offense for which he could have been convicted based on his conduct. See — U.S. at -, 130 S.Ct. at 2580 (quoting 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a)(3)). Following the Supreme Court’s remand of Simmons, a panel of the Fourth Circuit held that Carachuri did not require any change in the court’s prior holding. See Simmons, 635 F.3d at 145. However, after granting rehearing en banc, the Fourth Circuit reversed the panel decision. Simmons, 649 F.3d at 239. The en banc court “held that, in deciding whether to enhance federal sentences based on prior North Carolina convictions,” courts must look “not to the maximum sentence that North Carolina courts could have imposed for a hypothetical defendant who was guilty of an aggravated offense or had a prior criminal record, but rather to the maximum sentence that could have been imposed on a person with the defendant’s actual level of aggravation and criminal history.” United States v. Powell 691 F.3d 554, 556 (4th Cir.2012) (citing Simmons, 649 F.3d at 241). Relying on Carachuri and Simmons, Ingram contends that this Court unlawfully enhanced his sentence under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1) by relying on prior convictions for which he received “a sentence of less than one year imprisonment.” Def.’s Mot. at 12. He further asserts that his motion is timely under § 2255(f)(3) because Carachuri and Simmons were decided after the judgment became final in this case. See id. The Court finds Ingram’s position unpersuasive for several reasons. First, contrary to Ingram’s assertion, his sentence was not enhanced under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1) based on his prior convictions. Under 21 U.S.C. § 851(a)(1), “[a] judge may not impose an enhanced penalty [under § 841(b)(1) ] unless before trial — or before a guilty plea — the prosecutor files an information stating in writing the previous convictions forming the basis for the enhancement.” United States v. Vanness, 85 F.3d 661, 663 (D.C.Cir.1996) (citing 21 U.S.C. § 851(a)(1)). In other words, “[a] prosecutor’s compliance with § 851(a)(1) is ... a necessary condition to a judge’s imposing an enhanced sentence on the basis of a defendant’s prior convictions.” Id. at 663 n. 2. Here, the government did not file a § 851(a)(1) information, and the Court consequently did not impose an enhanced sentence upon Ingram based on his prior convictions. The Court instead sentenced Ingram in accordance with the plea agreement he reached with the government, which did not seek to enhance Ingram’s sentence under § 841(b)(1) based on his prior convictions. See ECF Nos. 182, 211. Second, even if Ingram’s sentence had been enhanced under § 841(b)(1), his motion challenging that enhancement is not timely under § 2255(f)(3). To qualify as timely under § 2255(f)(3), a motion must be filed within one year of “the date 'on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3) (emphasis added); see also Dodd, 545 U.S. at 358-59, 125 S.Ct. 2478 (Under § 2255(f)(3), “if this Court decides a case recognizing a new right, a federal prisoner seeking to assert that right will have one year from this Court’s decision within which to file his § 2255 motion.” (emphasis added)). Thus, the accrual date for Ingram’s motion must be measured by the Supreme Court decision that initially recognized the right asserted in his motion. And the only decision conceivably fitting this description is Carachuri, which the Supreme Court issued on June 14, 2010. Because Ingram filed his § 2255 motion on November 28, 2011, see Def.’s Mot. at 1, more than a year after Carachuri, his motion is not timely under § 2255(f)(3). Third, even assuming that Ingram’s sentence had been enhanced under § 841(b)(1) and he filed his motion within one year of Carachuri, the motion still would not satisfy § 2255(f)(3), because Ingram has not shown that his motion asserts a “right ... made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3). Ingram has offered no argument on this issue, and several federal courts have held that Carachuri is not retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review. See, e.g., Powell, 691 F.3d at 560; Shaeffer v. United States, No. 11-cv-155, 2012 WL 1598061, at  (E.D.Tenn. May 7, 2012) (collecting eases); Bogardus v. United States, No. 110-155, 2012 WL 292870, at  (S.D.Ga. Jan. 4, 2012) (“[A]n exhaustive search reveals that nearly every court to consider whether Carachuri applies retroactively has concluded that it does not.” (collecting cases)). Ingram has therefore failed to show that his motion falls within the scope of § 2255(f)(3). In sum, Ingram’s § 2255 motion must be dismissed as untimely because he filed it more than one year after his judgment of conviction became final within the meaning of § 2255(f)(1), and because it does not satisfy the requirements of § 2255(f)(3). Since the Court concludes that Ingram’s § 2255 motion is untimely and fails as a matter of law for that reason, it need not hold an evidentiary hearing on the motion. See United States v. Morrison, 98 F.3d 619, 625 (D.C.Cir.1996) (“A judge need not conduct an evidentiary hearing before denying a petition for relief under § 2255 when ‘the motion and the files and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no relief.’ ” (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2255)).