In Re: Jeffrey Smith

829 F.3d 1276, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13131
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided July 18, 2016·No. 16-13661-J 16-14000-J·Published·Cited by 58 cases

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'BY THE PANEL:

Jeffrey Smith was convicted by a jury of carjacking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119, and carrying and using a firearm during this crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The convictions arose out of a carjacking during which one of the victims was shot to death. Smith has filed an application seeking an order authorizing the district court to consider a second or successive motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his federal sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Such authorization may be granted only if this Court certifies that the second or successive motion contains a claim involving:

(1) newly discovered evidence that, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as- a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the movant guilty of the offense; or
(2) a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.

28 U.S.C. § 2255(h). Only the second subsection above — assertion of a new rule of constitutional law — is at issue here.

We may authorize the filing of a second or successive motion only if we first determine that the applicant has made a prima facie showing that satisfies the requirements of this subsection. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(C); see also Jordan v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 485 F.3d 1351, 1357-58 (11th Cir. 2007) (explaining that this Court’s determination that an applicant has made a prima facie showing that the statutory criteria have been met is simply a threshold determination).

Smith filed two applications, one pro se, and one counseled. We consolidated those applications, and, because the applications raise substantially the same claim, we consider them together. In his applications, Smith indicates that he wishes to raise one claim in a second or successive § 2255 motion. Smith asserts that his claim relies upon the new rule of constitutional law announced in Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2551, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015). In Johnson, the Supreme [1278] Court held that because the residual clause of the “violent felony” definition in the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) is unconstitutionally vague, imposition of an enhanced sentence under that provision violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process. The Supreme Court made clear that its ruling on the residual clause did not call into question the validity of the elements clause or the enumerated crimes clause of the ACCA’s definition of a violent felony.1 Id. at -, 135 S.Ct. at 2563. Smith’s applications also cite Welch v. United States, 578 U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 1257, 194 L.Ed.2d 387 (2016), in which the Supreme Court held that Johnson applies retroactively to cases on collateral review. In short, Smith asserts that his conviction and sentence under § 924(c) are no longer valid in light of Johnson.

In light of the Supreme Court’s holdings in Johnson and Welch, federal prisoners who make a prima facie showing that they previously were sentenced in reliance on the ACCA’s now-void residual clause are entitled to file a second or successive § 2255 motion in the district court. However, merely asserting, in the abstract, a ground that purportedly meets § 2255(h)’s requirements “represents] the minimum showing” necessary to file a successive § 2255 motion. In re Holladay, 331 F.3d 1169, 1173 (11th Cir. 2003) (granting a state death-row inmate’s successive application because he had proffered detailed evidence, in satisfaction of § 2244(b)(3)(C), that showed “a reasonable likelihood that he is in fact mentally retarded” to support his proposed Atkins claim). Rather, § 2244(b)(3)(C) requires the applicant.to make “a prima facie showing that the application satisfies the requirements of this subsection.” Id. Accordingly, it is not enough for a federal prisoner to merely cite Johnson as the basis for the claim he seeks to raise in a second or successive § 2255 motion. Instead, the prisoner must also make a prima facie showing that he falls within the scope of the new substantive rule announced in Johnson. See id.; 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(C).

Potential Applicability of Johnson to a Non-ACCA Statute

As noted, Johnson rendered the residual clause of the ACCA invalid. It said nothing about the validity of the definition of a crime of violence found in § 924(c) (3), which prohibits using or carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. Section 924(c) creates a separate crime and provides for a mandatory consecutive sentence for a defendant who uses a firearm during a crime of violence or a drug trafficking crime. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). For purposes of § 924(c), “crime of violence” means an offense that is a felony and:

(A) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, or
(B) that by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.

18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3).

Subsection (A) is often referred to as the force clause, the use-of-force clause, or the elements clause. Subsection (B) is often [1279] referred to as the residual clause or the substantial-risk clause. We will refer to the clauses, respectively, as the force clause and the residual clause.

As noted, Smith contends that the rule promulgated in Johnson, which held the residual clause of the ACCA to be unconstitutionally vague, means that § 924(c)’s residual clause must likewise suffer the same fate. Further, as this argument goes, because Johnson applies retroactively for purposes of permitting a second or successive § 2255 motion, then a prisoner who was not convicted of an ACCA violation may also rely on Johnson and Welch to gain permission to .file a second or successive motion attacking a conviction under a different statute. This contention, however, is not self-evident and, indeed, there are good reasons to question an argument that Johnson mandates the invalidation of § 924(c)’s particular residual clause, as set out in § 924(c)(3)(B).

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In Re: Jeffrey Smith, 829 F.3d 1276, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 13131 (11th Cir. 2016).

829 F.3d 1276 (In Re: Jeffrey Smith) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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