United States v. Hammond

354 F. Supp. 3d 28
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit·Decided December 7, 2018·No. Criminal Action No. 02-294 (BAH)·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

While not yet addressed by the D.C. Circuit, other circuit courts have considered whether a § 2255 motion attacking the mandatory Guidelines' residual clause is timely if filed within a year of Johnson . The Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits have interpreted Johnson as strictly limited to the ACCA and rejected petitions that, like Hammond's, challenged the mandatory Guidelines' residual clause, as "untimely." See United States v. Blackstone , 903 F.3d 1020, 1028 (9th Cir. 2018) ("As of now, however, Blackstone's motion is untimely."); United States v. Green , 898 F.3d 315, 322-23 (3d Cir. 2018) ("We hold that Green's motion is untimely in light of the plain language of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3)."); United States v. Greer , 881 F.3d 1241, 1249 (10th Cir. 2018) ("We agree with the well-reasoned decisions of our sister circuits and therefore hold that Mr. Greer's motion is untimely."); United States v. Brown , 868 F.3d 297, 299 (4th Cir. 2017) ("We are thus compelled to affirm the dismissal of Petitioner's motion as untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3)."); Raybon v. United States, 867 F.3d 625, 627 (6th Cir. 2017) ("We conclude that his claim is not timely under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3)."). The First Circuit, in a slightly different posture, also evaluated the timeliness of a motion like Hammond's as a product of whether Johnson extends to the mandatory Guidelines, and "tentative[ly]" ruled that a motion like Hammond's filed within one year of Johnson could not be dismissed as untimely. Moore v. United States , 871 F.3d 72, 77, 77 n.3, 80 (1st Cir. 2017).7

The Seventh Circuit has also addressed the timeliness of a motion attacking the mandatory Guidelines' residual clause, but jettisoned the analytic approach proposed by the parties and seemingly used by other courts, of assessing the *40procedural timeliness of the § 2255 petition by examining the scope of the newly recognized right. As the Seventh Circuit aptly observed, debating whether Johnson announced a right that applies to an enhanced sentence under the mandatory Guidelines "improperly reads a merits analysis into the limitations period." Cross v. United States , 892 F.3d 288, 293 (7th Cir. 2018). Section 2255(f)(3)'s limitation period "runs from 'the date on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court.' " Id. at 293-94 (emphasis in original). For timeliness, a petitioner "need only claim the benefit of a right that the Supreme Court has recently recognized." Id. at 294. Whether a petitioner successfully proves his entitlement is the separate, merits question. Cross , 892 F.3d at 294 ; see also United States v. Snyder , 871 F.3d 1122, 1126 (10th Cir. 2017) ("Whether or not Snyder can ultimately prevail on his motion, he asserts the right established in Johnson , to be free from a sentence purportedly authorized by the unconstitutionally vague residual clause. Thus, his § 2255 motion, filed within a year of the Court's decision in Johnson , is timely under § 2255(f)(3)." (emphasis in original) ).8 Otherwise, § 2255(f)(3)'s use of "asserted" would be superfluous. Cross , 892 F.3d at 294.

This Court agrees with the Seventh Circuit that the timeliness of a § 2255 motion is an independent inquiry from whether the motion seeks to vindicate a newly recognized right applicable to the petitioner. The courts that have viewed timeliness through the lens of Johnson 's scope settled on that approach by emphasizing § 2255(f)(3)'s second clause, which conditions relief under that section to motions claiming rights that have "been newly recognized by the Supreme Court." Blackstone , 903 F.3d at 1025-26 ; Green , 898 F.3d at 320-21 ; Greer , 881 F.3d at 1247 ; Brown , 868 F.3d at 301 ; Raybon , 867 F.3d at 625. This analysis falls short of grappling with Dodd , which made clear that timeliness under § 2255(f)(3) is exclusively a function of that provision's first clause: when "the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court."

*41Dodd , 545 U.S. at 358, 125 S.Ct. 2478 ("Dodd's reliance on the second clause to identify the operative date is misplaced."); id.

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United States v. Hammond, 354 F. Supp. 3d 28 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

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