Court Opinion

ID: 9945091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-27 01:00:35.810435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:21.894320
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-10746       Document: 42-1      Page: 1     Date Filed: 02/26/2024

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit
                             ____________
                                                                  United States Court of Appeals
                                                                           Fifth Circuit
                               No. 23-10746
                             Summary Calendar                            FILED
                             ____________                         February 26, 2024
                                                                    Lyle W. Cayce
Troy Anthony Smocks,                                                     Clerk

                                                       Petitioner—Appellant,

                                    versus

United States of America,

                                         Respondent—Appellee.
               ______________________________

               Appeal from the United States District Court
                   for the Northern District of Texas
                        USDC No. 3:22-CV-2662
               ______________________________

Before Elrod, Oldham, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam: *
       Troy Anthony Smocks, former federal prisoner # 05582-041, appeals
the dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2241 petition challenging his conviction for
making threats in interstate communications in violation of 18 U.S.C.

       _____________________
       *
         Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited
circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.
Case: 23-10746        Document: 42-1        Page: 2    Date Filed: 02/26/2024

                                  No. 23-10746

§ 875(c). We need not reach his arguments, however, because he waived his
right to make them.
       On September 13, 2021, Smocks signed a plea agreement and, on
September 29, pled guilty to a violation of § 875(c). The plea agreement
waived Smocks’s “Appeal Rights” and right to “Collateral Attack[s]” of his
conviction. The waiver provided, in relevant part:
       [Smocks] . . . waives any right to challenge the conviction
       entered or sentence imposed under this Agreement or
       otherwise attempt to modify or change the sentence or the
       manner in which it was determined in any collateral attack,
       including, but not limited to, a motion brought under 28 U.S.C.
       § 2255 . . . except to the extent such a motion is based on newly
       discovered evidence or on a claim that [he] received ineffective
       assistance of counsel.”
       “[A]n informed and voluntary waiver of post-conviction relief is
effective to bar such relief.” United States v. Wilkes, 20 F.3d 651, 653 (5th Cir.
1994). We review the effectiveness of such a waiver de novo. United States v.
Barnes, 953 F.3d 383, 386 (5th Cir. 2020). “We consider ‘(1) whether the
waiver was knowing and voluntary and (2) whether the waiver applies to the
circumstances at hand, based on the plain language of the agreement.’” Ibid.
(quoting United States v. Kelly, 915 F.3d 344, 348 (5th Cir. 2019)). “A waiver
is knowing and voluntary if the defendant knows that he has the right to
collateral review and that he is waiving it in the plea agreement.” Id.
       Smocks offers no evidence that his waiver was not knowing or
voluntary. And his petition presents no new evidence and expressly disclaims
any ineffective assistance of counsel claim, so his petition clearly falls under
the “plain language” of his plea agreement. See Barnes, 953 F.3d at 386. His
collateral review waiver therefore bars his petition. Accordingly, the
judgment of the district court dismissing Smocks’s § 2241 petition is
AFFIRMED.

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