Court Opinion

ID: 9368697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-06 19:00:43.565481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:10.171973
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-40514        Document: 00516635675             Page: 1      Date Filed: 02/06/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit
                                     ____________                            United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                      Fifth Circuit

                                                                                     FILED
                                      No. 22-40514                           February 6, 2023
                                    Summary Calendar
                                                                               Lyle W. Cayce
                                    ____________
                                                                                    Clerk
   United States of America,

                                                                     Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Edward Todd Jacobs,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                          for the Eastern District of Texas
                               USDC No. 6:17-CV-216
                     ______________________________

   Before Stewart, Willett, and Douglas, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Edward Todd Jacobs, federal inmate # 19938-078, pleaded guilty to
   attempted arson and solicitation of murder for hire and was sentenced to
   concurrent 188-month terms of imprisonment. In 2017, Jacobs filed a 28
   U.S.C. § 2255 motion challenging the imposed sentences as violating his plea
   agreement, which was dismissed as time barred. Two years later, he moved

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-40514      Document: 00516635675          Page: 2   Date Filed: 02/06/2023

                                    No. 22-40514

   to reopen his § 2255 proceedings, which the district court construed as a
   Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) motion and denied. Jacobs then filed
   the instant motion to reconsider, in which he attacked his sentence on
   essentially the same grounds and again asked the district court to modify the
   judgment to comport with the plea agreement. The district court denied
   relief on the merits, and Jacobs has applied for a certificate of appealability
   (COA) to appeal that ruling.
          The district court’s consideration of Jacobs’s motion to reconsider on
   its merits was error because that motion was in effect a successive § 2255
   motion, and Jacobs had not obtained authorization to proceed from this
   court. See Gonzalez v. Crosby, 545 U.S. 524, 532 & n.4 (2005); 28 U.S.C.
   § 2244(b)(3)(A). The district court thus had no jurisdiction to grant or deny
   relief. See Davis v. Sumlin, 999 F.3d 278, 279 (5th Cir. 2021). Accordingly,
   the district court’s order denying Jacobs’s motion to reconsider is
   VACATED, and the matter is REMANDED with instructions to dismiss
   the motion for lack of jurisdiction. See Davis, 999 F.3d at 280. Jacobs’s COA
   application is DENIED AS MOOT.

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