United States v. Gary A. Phillips

225 F.3d 1198, 2000 WL 1264651
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 18, 2000
Docket98-7034
StatusPublished
Cited by153 cases

This text of 225 F.3d 1198 (United States v. Gary A. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Gary A. Phillips, 225 F.3d 1198, 2000 WL 1264651 (11th Cir. 2000).

Opinion

CARNES, Circuit Judge:

Gary A. Phillips attempts to appeal out-of-time the sentence he received after be *1199 ing convicted of three counts related to a bank robbery. He contends that when calculating his sentence the district court improperly applied two upward adjustments to his base offense level. We are faced with a threshold issue of appellate jurisdiction, because Phillips did not file his notice of appeal until sixteen days after the district court entered its order granting his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion for an out-of-time appeal. Was that too late? Is entry of the order granting a § 2255 motion that seeks an out-of-time appeal the event that starts the notice of appeal clock running? How should a district court procedurally effect an out-of-time appeal as a § 2255 remedy, anyway?

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Gary Phillips was tried and convicted by a jury for conspiring to commit a bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871, commission of a bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2118(a) and (d), and possession of a short-barrel rifle, in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5861(d), and 5871. He was sentenced for those crimes in February of 1993. No direct appeal was filed on behalf of Phillips, and nothing happened in the case for over four years. In March of 1997, Phillips filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 contending that he had wanted to appeal his sentence but had been denied his right to do so. Section 2255 grants prisoners “in custody under sentence of a court ... claiming the right to be released upon the ground that the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States, or that the court was without jurisdiction to impose such sentence, or that the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, or is otherwise subject to collateral attack” the right to move the court to “vacate, set aside, or correct the sentence.” 28 U.S.C. § 2255. That is what Phillips did, and he eventually convinced the district court that he was entitled to some relief.

On December 2, 1998, the district court entered an order granting Phillips’ § 2255 motion on the ground that neither the court at sentencing nor Phillips’ attorney at the time had advised him of his right to appeal in forma pauperis. The government did not exercise its right to appeal that § 2255 order and does not question its correctness now. The last sentence of the district court’s December 2, 1998 order giving Phillips relief states as follows: “Therefore, he is hereby GRANTED an out-of-time appeal' and his present, court-appointed counsel is appointed to represent him on appeal of the merits.” ' Phillips filed a notice of direct appeal from his 1993 sentence sixteen days later, on December 18,1998. This is that appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

The threshold issue we must decide is whether we have jurisdiction to resolve the sentencing issues Phillips raises, because we may not address issues raised in an appeal until we resolve any questions about our jurisdiction to decide those issues. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env’t, 523 U.S. 83, 101-03, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 1016, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998). The government takes the position that we may lack jurisdiction because Phillips did not file his notice of direct appeal in a timely fashion after the district court’s order granting him permission to file it out-of-time. See United States v. Whitaker, 122, F.2d 1533, 1534 (11th Cir.1984) (“Failure to file a timely notice of appeal leaves the appellate court without jurisdiction.”). The government says that Phillips should have filed his notice of appeal within ten days of the entry of the § 2255 order permitting him to do so. The government stakes its position on the fact that ten days is the time ordinarily allowed for filing a notice of appeal after entry of the sentence being appealed.

In order to appeal, as of right, a judgment of the district court a party ordinarily must file a notice of appeal within the time allowed by Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. See Smith v. Barry, 502 U.S. 244, 247, 112 S.Ct. 678, 681, 116 L.Ed.2d 678 (1992). And the *1200 times for filing notices of appeal that are set out in Rule 4 are jurisdictional and strictly applied. See id. at 248, 112 S.Ct. at 682 (discussing Rules 3 and 4 and their application); see also LaChance v. Duffy’s Draft House, Inc., 146 F.3d 832, 837 (11th Cir.1998). The problem is that the time for filing a notice of appeal in this situation, where the district court has granted an out-of-time appeal from the judgment in a criminal case as relief in a § 2255 proceeding, is not specified in Rule 4.

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a)(1)(B) provides that notice of appeal in a civil case must be filed within sixty days (where the government is a party), but this is not an appeal in a civil case. Phillips is not appealing the order the district court entered in the § 2255 proceeding which purported to grant him this out-of-time direct criminal appeal; instead, he is appealing or attempting to appeal the sentence he received in his criminal case in 1993.

Rule 4(b)(1)(A), which generally governs appeals by defendants in criminal cases, does not apply in this situation either. That provision requires a criminal defendant to file notice of appeal within ten days after “(i) the entry of either the judgment or the order being appealed,” or “(ii) the filing of the government’s notice of appeal,” whichever is later. Of course, it is impossible for a defendant to file the notice of appeal in an out-of-time appeal within either of those two Rule 4(b)(1)(A) dates, because if the defendant could do that it would not be an out-of-time appeal. The sentence judgment Phillips is appealing was entered four years before he received authorization in the form of the § 2255 order to go ahead and appeal that judgment even though the Rule 4(b)(1)(A) deadline had long since passed.

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Bluebook (online)
225 F.3d 1198, 2000 WL 1264651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gary-a-phillips-ca11-2000.