Opinion ID: 201768
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Limitations Period and the Relation Back Argument

Text: 9 First, Ciampi contends that the district court erred in dismissing, as time-barred, the claims asserted in his amended petition that counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the plea process by failing to discuss with him (i) that acceptance of the plea agreement would constitute a waiver of his appeal and habeas corpus rights, and (ii) whether or not he had a viable appeal from his gambling conviction. Ciampi contends that since the pro se petition stated that the waiver in the plea agreement was not fully explained to him, and inasmuch as pro se petitions are to be liberally construed, this court should supply the omitted phrase by the court or his attorney  at the end of that sentence. Ciampi maintains that once we import, from his pro se petition, this ineffective assistance claim into his amended petition, it follows that his related argument that he had a meritorious and potentially successful appeal from his gambling conviction — including subordinate issues such as (i) whether the government established all elements of a section 1955 offense, and (ii) whether his counsel properly preserved or waived the insufficiency challenge for appeal — must necessarily be addressed as part of his amended petition. We disagree. 10 The district court ruling that the pertinent new claims in Ciampi's amended October 2002 petition do not relate back to the timely pro se petition filed in February 2001 is reviewed only for abuse of discretion. See Young v. Lepone, 305 F.3d 1, 14 (1st Cir.2002). 2 11 Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 governs amendments to habeas petitions in a § 2255 proceeding. See, e.g., United States v. Duffus, 174 F.3d 333, 336 (3d Cir.1999); see also United States v. Hicks, 283 F.3d 380, 386 (D.C.Cir.2002), thereby permitting otherwise untimely pleading amendments to relate back to the date of the timely-filed original pleading provided the claim asserted in the amended plea arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading. Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(c)(2)(emphasis added). However, in the habeas corpus context, the Rule 15 relation back provision is to be strictly construed, in light of `Congress' decision to expedite collateral attacks by placing stringent time restrictions on [them].' Mayle v. Felix, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 2562, 2570, ___ L.Ed.2d ___ (2005) (citation omitted); see United States v. Espinoza-Saenz, 235 F.3d 501, 505 (10th Cir.2000) (noting that an overly broad interpretation of the Rule 15 term occurrence in the context of habeas proceedings would be tantamount to judicial rescission of AEDPA's statute of limitations period). Accordingly, amended habeas corpus claims generally must arise from the same core facts, and not depend upon events which are separate both in time and type from the events upon which the original claims depended. Mayle, 125 S.Ct. at 2570 (disallowing relation back, and holding that claimed violations in admission of out-of-court statements were distinct under Rule 15, inasmuch as one involved a Fifth Amendment challenge to the defendant's own pretrial statements, and the other involved a Confrontation Clause challenge to videotaped witness testimony). 12 Under this stringent standard, therefore, the district court did not remotely abuse its discretion in determining that the amended Ciampi claims did not relate back to the pro se petition. Ciampi erroneously posits that it is sufficient under Rule 15 that both sets of claims generally related to his understanding of his appellate waiver. Instead, however, Ciampi's pro se petition restricts its focus to whether the district court failed to make an adequate inquiry at the plea hearing — pursuant to its responsibility under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(6) — as to whether Ciampi understood that he was waiving his rights to appeal or to collaterally challenge his gambling conviction. In pertinent part, the Addendum to the Ciampi pro se petition states: 13 Can the court accept such a waiver without informing the defendant in detail that such waiver would prevent the defendant from arguing any constitutional or jurisdictional defect found within the indictment? To compound [petitioner's] dilemma, he assumed the right to appeal was standard for all defendant(s), and that (sic) the waiver in the plea agreement was not fully explained to him. 14 (Emphasis added.) Even if it were to be liberally construed, see, e.g., Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976) (noting that pro se habeas petitions normally should be construed liberally in petitioner's favor); Voravongsa v. A.T. Wall, 349 F.3d 1, 8 (1st Cir.2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 963, 124 S.Ct. 1724, 158 L.Ed.2d 407 (2004), this quoted language speaks only of the court, and makes no mention of Ciampi's attorney. Moreover, Ciampi asserted another ineffective assistance claim against his attorney in his pro se petition, alleging that his counsel failed to investigate the misrepresentations allegedly made by the government in the indictment, which Ciampi contends would have unearthed evidence of governmental involvement in the illegal gambling enterprise. Not only does this suggest that Ciampi — acting pro se — adequately understood the required elements of an ineffective assistance claim, but it makes his omission of any similar claim — that his attorney failed to explain the appellate waiver to him — glaring indeed. As the Supreme Court recently made crystal clear, see Mayle, 125 S.Ct. at 2570, a petitioner does not satisfy the Rule 15 relation back standard merely by raising some type of ineffective assistance in the original petition, and then amending the petition to assert another ineffective assistance claim based upon an entirely distinct type of attorney misfeasance. See, e.g., Davenport v. United States, 217 F.3d 1341, 1346 (11th Cir.2000); Duffus, 174 F.3d at 337. 3 15 Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the above-mentioned claims from the amended petition, and the only habeas claim properly before us on appeal is the claim that the district court failed to comply with Rule 11(c) during the plea hearing. 16