Court Opinion

ID: 9363915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-17 21:00:50.929334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:34.857120
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-11490    Document: 40-1     Date Filed: 01/17/2023   Page: 1 of 7

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 22-11490
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                      Plaintiff-Appellee,
       versus
       STEVE WILLIAMS,

                                                  Defendant-Appellant.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Middle District of Florida
                    D.C. Docket No. 8:96-cr-00318-TPB-1
                          ____________________
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       2                       Opinion of the Court                 22-11490

       Before JORDAN, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
              Steve Williams, a former federal prisoner represented by
       counsel, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ
       of error coram nobis, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a). The government, in turn,
       has moved for summary affirmance and to stay the briefing sched-
       ule.
                                      I.

               Williams was charged in 1996 with one count of knowingly
       and intentionally using a communication facility to facilitate a con-
       spiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, in viola-
       tion of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). He later agreed, through counsel, to
       plead guilty pursuant to a written agreement. The district court
       sentenced Williams to 5 months’ imprisonment followed by 36
       months’ supervised release. The court entered a final judgment to
       this effect in 1997. Williams did not appeal or seek post-conviction
       relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He served his sentence and dis-
       charged his term of supervised release.
              In March 2022, Williams, represented by new counsel, filed
       the present petition for a writ of error coram nobis, pursuant to 28
       U.S.C. § 1651(a), and challenged the validity of his 1997 conviction.
       Williams asserted that he was entitled to post-conviction relief be-
       cause his trial counsel did not advise him of a viable entrapment
       defense before he agreed to plead guilty. He asserted that his trial
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       22-11490               Opinion of the Court                         3

       counsel had been ineffective for not pursuing an entrapment de-
       fense because he had told counsel of the facts underlying the po-
       tential defense. And, he asserted, if he had not pleaded guilty, he
       would have been acquitted at trial. He further asserted that his trial
       counsel failed to inform him that he would “automatically lose his
       constitutional right to ‘keep and bear arms’” and “to participate in
       the political process by voting in elections” as a result of his plea.
       He reiterated that if he had been informed of these rights, he would
       not have pleaded guilty, and “the result would have been differ-
       ent.”
               In attempting to excuse his failure to file a motion for post-
       conviction relief under Section 2255 and his 20-year delay in filing
       a petition for writ of coram nobis, Williams argued that he should
       have been appointed counsel to file such a post-conviction motion.
       Specifically, Williams argued that Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1
       (2012), provides an avenue for a federal court to “hear and rule
       upon the merit [of] substantial claims of ineffective assistance of
       counsel, notwithstanding any Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
       Penalty Act [(“AEDPA”)]; time limitations . . . or [s]tate [c]ourt
       procedural bars, where the [p]etitioner had no lawyer to do his first
       post-conviction relief motion, or if counsel in such capacity pro-
       vided ineffective assistance.”
              The district court denied Williams’s petition. The court rea-
       soned that a writ of error coram nobis was an “extraordinary” rem-
       edy of last resort which could only issue where there is and was no
       other available avenue of relief to correct a fundamental error that
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       4                          Opinion of the Court                      22-11490

       rendered the proceeding itself irregular and invalid. But here, the
       court explained, Williams could have pursued relief under 28
       U.S.C. § 2255 and failed to do so. The court also noted that Wil-
       liams failed to explain the more than twenty-five-year delay be-
       tween pleading guilty in 1996 and filing the petition in 2022. 1
               On appeal, Williams argues that the district court improp-
       erly denied his petition for error coram nobis relief. Rather than
       filing a response, the government has moved for summary affir-
       mance. It argues that the district court did not err in denying Wil-
       liams’s petition because Williams could have raised his ineffective
       assistance claim in a Section 2255 motion any time between his
       guilty plea and his release from custody. It also contends that Wil-
       liams failed to establish any sound reason for his delay in seeking
       relief and that Williams never sought to obtain appointed post-con-
       viction counsel in the district court.
                                           II.

              We review a district court’s denial of a petition for writ of
       error coram nobis for an abuse of discretion. Alikhani v. United
       States, 200 F.3d 732, 734 (11th Cir. 2000). Summary disposition is

       1 Williams moved the district court to reconsider its ruling, without success.
       On appeal, he does not specifically challenge the denial of that motion. Ac-
       cordingly, any issue in this respect is forfeited. Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian
       Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 680-81 (11th Cir. 2014) (“A party can abandon an issue
       on appeal by failing to ‘plainly and prominently’ address it in his opening
       brief.”).
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       22-11490                Opinion of the Court                         5

       appropriate, in part, where “the position of one of the parties is
       clearly right as a matter of law so that there can be no substantial
       question as to the outcome of the case . . . .” Groendyke Transp.,
       Inc. v. Davis, 406 F.2d 1158, 1162 (5th Cir. 1969). A motion for sum-
       mary affirmance shall postpone the due date for the filing of any
       remaining brief until we rule on such motion. 11th Cir. R. 31-1(c).
                                      III.

               A writ of error coram nobis offers a remedy “to vacate a con-
       viction when the petitioner has served his sentence and is no longer
       in custody, as is required for post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C.
       § 2255.” United States v. Peter, 310 F.3d 709, 712 (11th Cir. 2002).
       The writ, however, may issue only when (1) “there is and was no
       other available avenue of relief,” and (2) “the error involves a mat-
       ter of fact of the most fundamental character which has not been
       put in issue or passed upon and which renders the proceeding itself
       irregular and invalid.” Alikhani, 200 F.3d at 734 (emphasis added).
       Moreover, a district court may consider a coram nobis petition
       only where the petitioner presents sound reasons for failing to seek
       relief earlier. United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 512 (1954).
               We cannot say the district court abused its discretion in
       denying the petition for a writ of coram nobis. Williams does not
       challenge the district court’s conclusion that he could have raised
       his trial counsel’s ineffective assistance by filing a Section 2255 pe-
       tition while he was still in custody. And Williams did not explain
       when he became aware of his counsel’s ineffectiveness or whether
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       6                       Opinion of the Court                  22-11490

       such a discovery justified the delay in petitioning for a writ of co-
       ram nobis. Accordingly, even if his trial counsel’s ineffective assis-
       tance could rise to the level of an error of “the most fundamental
       character,” Alikhani, 200 F.3d at 734, the district court did not err
       in denying his petition as untimely.
               Williams cites Martinez to excuse his failure to raise his trial
       counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness earlier. In Martinez, the Supreme
       Court held that a procedural default in state-court post-conviction
       litigation will not bar a federal habeas court from hearing a sub-
       stantial constitutional claim if the claim was not raised in the state
       post-conviction proceeding only because the petitioner had no
       counsel or the petitioner’s counsel in that proceeding was ineffec-
       tive. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 13-14.
              Martinez has no application here. The exception in Martinez
       is not about timeliness. See Arthur v. Thomas, 739 F.3d 611, 613
       (11th Cir. 2014). And it has never been applied to justify the grant-
       ing of a writ of coram nobis. Moreover, the Martinez exception ap-
       plies only when the denial of post-conviction counsel or the inef-
       fectiveness of post-conviction counsel prevented a petitioner from
       raising a meritorious claim. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 13-14. But Wil-
       liams did not have post-conviction counsel, attempt to obtain post-
       conviction counsel, or otherwise try to litigate a post-conviction
       petition. He has made no effort to establish that his lack of post-
       conviction counsel prevented him from raising his claim until more
       than 20 years after his conviction and sentence.
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       22-11490             Opinion of the Court                    7

                                   IV.

              We GRANT the government’s motion for summary affir-
       mance. We DENY its motion to stay the briefing schedule as moot
       in light of Eleventh Circuit Rule 31-1(c).