Frazier v. United States

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedMay 12, 2020
Docket1:14-cv-00134
StatusUnknown

This text of Frazier v. United States (Frazier v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frazier v. United States, (E.D. Tenn. 2020).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA

DAVID T. FRAZIER, ) ) Petitioner, ) ) v. ) Nos.: 1:14-CV-134 ) 1:09-CR-188 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) Judge Collier Respondent. )

M E M O R A N D U M

Before the Court are multiple filings by Petitioner, David T. Frazier: two motions for an extension of time to file a motion to reconsider the Court’s denial of Petitioner’s motion for relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as to the denial of Petitioner’s 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion (Docs. 144, 1491); a motion to reconsider the Court’s denial of Petitioner’s motion for relief from judgment under Rule 60(b) (Doc. 150); two motions to take judicial notice in connection with Petitioner’s motion to reconsider, one of which also moves for a hearing (Docs. 151, 162); a citation of supplemental authorities (Doc. 159); two motions challenging Petitioner’s presentence investigation report (the “PSR”) (Docs. 146, 148); an affidavit that the undersigned is biased or prejudiced against Petitioner (Doc. 153); and a motion for bond (Doc. 160).

I. BACKGROUND In 2010, Petitioner pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute at least fifty grams of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841b)(1)(A)). (Docs. 46, 53.) Petitioner was sentenced to 294 months’ imprisonment after the

1 Citations are to the docket in case 1:09-cr-188. Court found him to be a career offender under § 4B1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines, based on his two prior Tennessee convictions for felony evading arrest. (Doc. 60.) On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed Petitioner’s conviction and sentence on February 19, 2013. (Doc. 76.) Petitioner did not seek a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court. Petitioner filed a § 2255 motion, as amended, asking the Court to set aside his career- offender enhancement based on the fact that his predicate state convictions for felony evading arrest, which carried two concurrent two-year sentences, were vacated and reimposed as two

consecutive one-year sentences by the Tennessee Criminal Court for Polk County on July 21, 2014 (the “July 2014 Order”). (See Doc. 80 at 7, 20; Doc. 87 at 1–2, 5–7; Doc. 117 (granting leave to amend § 2255 motion).) The state court took this action because Tennessee Code Annotated § 40- 20-111(b) required Petitioner to serve consecutive terms, not concurrent ones, given that Petitioner committed the second offense while on bail. Petitioner characterized the state court’s action as having voided his evading-arrest convictions, making them void ab initio. Petitioner’s § 2255 motion also argued that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel at sentencing because his counsel had not challenged the validity of his felony-evading-arrest convictions. (Doc. 84 at 1.) This Court denied Petitioner’s § 2255 motion on March 8, 2016. (Doc. 117.) The Court noted that that while there is some precedent

for the proposition that vacatur of a state sentence previously used to enhance a federal sentence under the [United States Sentencing] Guidelines is sufficiently exceptional as to constitute grounds for relief under § 2255[,] . . . none of the cited cases address a situation where the petitioner’s underlying sentences were vacated on the basis of a procedural technicality and then promptly reimposed.

(Doc. 116 at 13–14.) The Court concluded that “where there is no dispute that Petitioner both committed and currently has lawful convictions for the underlying offenses, relying on those convictions to enhance his sentence does not result in a miscarriage of justice.” (Id. at 14–15.) Petitioner appealed the Court’s denial of his § 2255 motion. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a certificate of appealability on Petitioner’s claim that “his career offender status is improper because his prior state sentences have been vacated.” (See Doc. 123 at 3, 5.) The Court of Appeals also denied his later motion for reconsideration as to a certificate of appealability on this issue. (See Doc. 126 at 3–4.) Petitioner filed a motion under Rule 60(b) on March 12, 2018, seeking relief from the denial of his § 2255 motion, and an amended motion on August 6, 2018. (Docs. 130, 131.) He

filed supplements on December 3 and December 12, 2018. (Docs. 136, 137.) Petitioner argued that he had new evidence that one or both of his evading-arrest convictions were void. (Doc. 130 at 3; Doc. 131 at 4.) He submitted a state-court order dated August 20, 2015 (the “August 2015 Order”), which he contended showed that the evading-arrest judgments, as reimposed in the July 2014 Order, were also illegal and therefore void. (Doc. 130 at 3, 4, 6, 19–30; Doc. 131 at 4, 13, 19–31.) The Court denied Petitioner’s Rule 60(b) motion on September 27, 2019. (Doc. 143.) The Court found that the August 2015 Order did not void Petitioner’s original evading-arrest convictions; rather, it voided the July 2014 Order, which had vacated and reimposed the sentences for those convictions. (Doc. 143 at 4.) The August 2015 Order “treat[ed] Petitioner’s claims

[attacking the original judgments] as still validly pending” and set an evidentiary hearing for November 2015 to resolve Petitioner’s attack on his evading-arrest judgments. (Id. (quoting Aug. 2015 Order, Doc. 130 at 27, 30.) In discussing the status of Petitioner’s evading-arrest judgments, the Court noted that Petitioner had not submitted any documents showing the ultimate resolution of his attack on the concurrent sentences. (Id. at 4 n.3.) Petitioner has since made multiple filings. Among other matters, he has filed a copy of a Memorandum Opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee dated June 27, 2017, (the “June 2017 Order”), affirming the state trial court’s dismissal, on December 15, 2015, of Petitioner’s motion to correct the allegedly illegal evading-arrest sentences. (Doc. 144 at 20–22.) As grounds, the June 2017 Order held Petitioner’s motion to correct illegal sentences failed to state a colorable claim, because the allegedly illegal sentences had already expired.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW FOR PRO SE LITIGANT Filings by pro se litigants are liberally construed and “must be held to less stringent

standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007) (citing Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 106 (1976)). Nevertheless, even pro se litigants are required to comply with the rules of procedure. McNeil v. United States, 508 U.S. 106, 113 (1993).

III. RECUSAL Petitioner has filed an “Affidavit of Bias or Prejudice of Judge Curtis Collier.” (Doc. 153.) The Court turns to these allegations first, because recusal would make it improper for the undersigned to consider Petitioner’s other filings. Under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), “[a]ny . . . judge . . . of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Disqualification is

required “if a reasonable, objective person, knowing all of the circumstances, would have questioned the judge’s impartiality.” Johnson v.

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Bluebook (online)
Frazier v. United States, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frazier-v-united-states-tned-2020.