Calvin Davis v. United States

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 15, 2016
Docket14-3019
StatusPublished

This text of Calvin Davis v. United States (Calvin Davis v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Calvin Davis v. United States, (7th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. 14‐3019

CALVIN DAVIS, Petitioner‐Appellant,

v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent‐Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division. No. 3:14‐cv‐50124— Frederick J. Kapala, Judge.

ARGUED JANUARY 4, 2016 — DECIDED MARCH 15, 2016

Before BAUER, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Calvin Davis pleaded guilty in 2010 to a narcotics conspiracy charge pursuant to a written plea agreement providing that he would be sentenced to a term equal to 66 percent of either the low end of the sentencing range advised by the Sentencing Guidelines or the statutory minimum term, whichever was greater. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(c)(1)(C). Davis expected to receive a prison term of no more 2 No. 14‐3019

than 80 months. However, the Guidelines range as subse‐ quently calculated by the probation officer and adopted by the district court turned out to be much longer than the parties had expected it would be. The court ultimately ordered Davis to serve 172 months in prison, a term that was equal to 66 percent of the low end of the Guidelines range and therefore consistent with the plea agreement, but more than twice what the parties had anticipated when they entered into that agreement. No appeal was filed from the sentence. But more than four years later, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Alleyne v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), Davis filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 contending that he was entitled to relief because the judge’s sentencing findings regarding his criminal history had increased the statutory minimum term of impris‐ onment. He also asserted, among other claims, that his attor‐ ney was ineffective in advising him about the consequences of his plea (including the likely sentence) and in failing to file a notice of appeal following his sentencing. The district court dismissed the motion, reasoning that Davis had no viable claim under Alleyne given that the Supreme Court has not yet declared that decision applicable retroactively on collateral review, and that Davis’s other claims were untimely. We agree and affirm the district court’s judgment. I. In 2008, Davis became involved with a Rockford, Illinois drug ring led by Hollis Daniels that trafficked primarily in heroin and occasionally crack cocaine. See United States v. Block, 705 F.3d 755, 758 (7th Cir. 2013) (describing the organization). His duties included picking up heroin from a supplier in Chicago, dropping off the raw heroin to other conspirators for No. 14‐3019 3

dilution and packaging, supplying street‐level dealers with 25‐count retail packages of heroin, and collecting the proceeds of their sales. The organization distributed approximately 700 grams of heroin per week. Davis was stopped and arrested while on his way to complete a pre‐arranged delivery of heroin to someone who was, unbeknownst to him, a confidential informant; he had 80 grams of heroin in his possession. After he was charged in Illinois state court, he began to cooperate with federal and state agents investigating the Hollis organiza‐ tion, became a confidential informant, and over the course of the next year wore a recording device to capture other mem‐ bers of the organization discussing their illegal activities. The investigation culminated in a second superseding indictment charging Davis and 14 others with conspiring to distribute (and to possess with the intent to distribute) more than one kilogram of heroin and 50 grams of crack cocaine, among other offenses. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846. Davis pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge pursuant to a written plea agreement. Davis agreed to continue cooperat‐ ing with the government and to provide truthful testimony in any subsequent proceeding. In exchange for his assistance, the government agreed to ask the court to depart downward from either the applicable statutory minimum term of imprisonment or the low end of the advisory range specified by the Sentenc‐ ing Guidelines, whichever was higher, and to impose a sentence equal to 66 percent of that term. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e); U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1. Because the drug conspiracy involved more than one kilogram of heroin, Davis was presumptively subject to a statutory minimum sentence of 10 years. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(i). The agreement expressly 4 No. 14‐3019

acknowledged that minimum term as well as the maximum possible term of life imprisonment. See R. 300 at 4 ¶ 8a & 7 ¶ 10d.1 However, given what the attorneys knew about Davis’s criminal history, both parties anticipated that Davis would have only one criminal history point (resulting in a criminal history of I) and that he would consequently be eligible for a sentence below the statutory minimum. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f); U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2(a)(1). Based on their preliminary Guidelines calculations, the parties also anticipated that the advisory Guidelines range would be 108 to 135 months. In accordance with the Government’s agreement to seek a downward departure to 66 percent of either the low end of that range (i.e., approximately 71 months) or of the statutory 10‐year minimum (roughly 79 months), whichever was greater, the parties expected the recommended sentence to be no more than 80 months. This was a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) agreement, so provided that the government found Davis’s cooperation to be sufficient and made the departure motion, the district court, having accepted the agreement, was obliged to sentence Davis to 66% of either the Guidelines minimum or statutory minimum term. The agreement recognized in several ways, however, that the parties’ Guidelines calculations were preliminary and that both the Guidelines range and the final sentence might ultimately turn out to be different than the parties assumed at the time they entered into the agreement. Thus, in recounting the parties’ calculations as to Davis’s criminal history and the

1 Citations to the record in Davis’s criminal prosecution take the form of “R. ___.” Citations to the record in Davis’s section 2255 proceeding take the form of “2255 R. ___.” No. 14‐3019 5

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Calvin Davis v. United States, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/calvin-davis-v-united-states-ca7-2016.