Court Opinion

ID: 9490851
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:56:19.047985+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:21.069633
License: Public Domain

MANTON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the judgment of the court. I write separately because I find it unnecessary to attempt to resolve inter and intra-circuit tensions, especially when the Supreme *1244Court has granted certiorari to decide the issue. In granting certiorari in Bousley v. Brooks, 97 F.3d 284 (8th Cir.1996), the Court will determine whether a defendant’s guilty plea means he has waived any right to file a collateral appeal, even one that cites post-conviction legal developments such as Bailey v. United States, — U.S. —, 116 S.Ct. 501, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995). We therefore will know shortly whether parts of this court’s decisions in Stanback v. United States, 113 F.3d 651 (7th Cir.1997), and Lee v. United States, 113 F.3d 73 (7th Cir.1997), were at odds with United States v. Broce, 488 U.S. 563, 109 S.Ct. 757, 102 L.Ed.2d 927 (1989), and, more recently, whether Johnson v. United States, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997), further calls them into question. See Young v. United States, 124 F.3d 794, 798 (7th Cir.1997) (“We need not decide whether to overrule Stan-back and Lee or to place the subject before the court en banc; it is enough for now to flag the apparent discrepancy between their approach and that of the Supreme Court.”).
At this point it is necessary only to say that Woodruffs liability is based upon Pinkerton (Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946)), which is broader than liability under Bailey because it focuses on the crimes of conspirators. In his brief to this court, Woodruff claims that Bailey overruled Pinkerton, something the Supreme Court has never said nor have we suggested. In fact, post-Bailey, Pinkerton is alive and well with respect to § 924(c) charges, a fact that Lee itself recognized. 113 F.3d at 76 (“we look not only at [defendant’s] own conduct but also at that of his coconspirators”). In short, in cases of clear-cut Pinkerton liability, we need not reflect upon the waiver issue and sort out whether a defendant’s guilty plea means he has surrendered his right later to contest his conviction (something strongly suggested by Broce). In Bousley the Supreme Court will determine whether such a guilty plea is in fact a waiver. The outcome will simply determine whether a Pinkerton defendant like Woodruff loses for one reason or two.