United States v. John Perotti

702 F. App'x 322
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 24, 2017
Docket16-3556
StatusUnpublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 702 F. App'x 322 (United States v. John Perotti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. John Perotti, 702 F. App'x 322 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

SILER, Circuit Judge.

After Johnson v. United States, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2551, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015), was decided, John Perotti was permitted to file a successive habeas corpus petition and had his sentence corrected as one of his prior convictions no longer qualified as a predicate felony under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). At the government’s request, Perotti was resen-tenced to time served and two years of supervised release. At the time of Perotti’s release from federal custody, he had served more time than the newly-applicable statutory maximum for his underlying conviction. Perotti appeals his sentence since his actual time served exceeded the *323 newly-applicable statutory maximum and the time served could impact his disposition should his supervised release be revoked. We dismiss Perotti’s appeal as his claims are moot,

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Perotti was found guilty by a jury of being a felon in possession of ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Under 922(g), the maximum term of imprisonment is ten years. The jury also found Perotti had three prior felony convictions, qualifying him for enhanced sentencing under the ACCA, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). This increased Perotti’s statutory sentencing range to fifteen years to life imprisonment. The district court imposed a sentence of 210 months to be followed by three years of supervised release.

On direct appeal, Perotti challenged whether his 1982 conviction for Ohio aggravated robbery, in violation of then O.R.C. § 2911.01(A)(1), was properly counted as an ACCA predicate. We held that it did so under the ACCA’s residual clause. United States v. Perotti, 226 Fed.Appx. 516, 518-19 (6th Cir. 2007).

In 2015, the Supreme Court held that the ACCA’s residual clause, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B), was unconstitutionally vague. Johnson, 135 S.Ct. at 2557. On Per-otti’s motion, we authorized him to file a successive § 2255 petition in the district court. In re John Perotti, No. 15-3955 (6th Cir. Mar. 14, 2016) (order).

In adjudicating Perotti’s § 2255 petition, the district court concluded that he no longer qualified for an enhanced sentence under the ACCA. This meant that his statutory maximum sentence reverted to the ten years applicable to his underlying conviction. The district court, at the government’s request, imposed a sentence of time served and two years of supervised release and ordered Perotti released from federal custody. At the time of his release, Perotti had served nearly twelve years in federal custody. He was then taken into state custody where he remains.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Questions of mootness and ripeness are jurisdictional and are reviewed de novo. Lewis v. Cont’l Bank Corp., 494 U.S. 472, 477, 110 S.Ct. 1249, 108 L.Ed.2d 400 (1990) (mootness); Ammex, Inc. v. Cox, 351 F.3d 697, 706 (6th Cir. 2003) (ripeness).

DISCUSSION

For us to have jurisdiction, a live case or controversy must exist on appeal. Mootness is “the doctrine of standing set in a time frame.” Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, 520 U.S. 43, 68 n.22, 117 S.Ct. 1055, 137 L.Ed.2d 170 (1997) (quoting United States Parole Comm’n v. Geraghty, 445 U.S. 388, 397, 100 S.Ct. 1202, 63 L.Ed.2d 479 (1980)). The existence of an Article III case or controversy at the district court is insufficient to confer appellate jurisdiction—the case must still be live during appellate proceedings. We do not issue advisory opinions. George Fischer Foundry Sys., Inc. v. Adolph H. Hottinger Maschinenbau GmbH, 55 F.3d 1206, 1210 (6th Cir. 1995). The • government asserts that Perotti’s challenge to his sentence was mooted when he was released from federal custody. If Perotti was challenging his conviction, then that would satisfy the case or controversy requirement as continuing adverse consequences are presumed. Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7-8, 118 S.Ct. 978, 140 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998). Perotti is not challenging his conviction but is instead challenging only the part of his sentence he has already completed, so this presumption does not apply and he must point to some other continuing adverse consequence. Id . at 8, 118 S.Ct. 978. In considering whether Perotti has pointed to such a harm, we note that an increased sentence *324 in a potential future criminal proceeding is insufficient to confer appellate jurisdiction. Lane v. Williams, 455 U.S. 624, 632, 102 S.Ct. 1322, 71 L.Ed.2d 508 (1982).

The first adverse consequence Perotti claims confers appellate jurisdiction is the potential' that he will lose the opportunity to have his over-time served credited to him shoulcj his supervised release be revoked. This harm is too uncertain to be cognizable. It could only arise if Perotti violates the terms of his federal supervised release, something we cannot assume will occur and do not wish to encourage. There would also need to be a revocation hearing, a finding of a violation, and the imposition of a sentence. Because none of those events has occurred, appellate jurisdiction does not exist on the basis of this alleged harm.

The second consequence that Perotti claims allows appellate review is that without resentencing he will be unable to have his time spent in custody properly considered by the district court should it consider shortening the two-year period of federal supervised' release it imposed at resentencing. The Supreme Court has made clear that excessive time served in prison does not automatically reduce a defendant’s period of supervised release. See United States v. Johnson, 529 U.S. 53, 60, 120 S.Ct. 1114, 146 L.Ed.2d 39 (2000) (“The statute, by its own necessary operation, does not reduce the length of a supervised release term by reason of excess time served in prison.”). But the Court also recognized that “equitable considerations of great weight exist when an individual is incarcerated beyond the proper expiration of his prison term” and that under 18 U.S.C. § 3583

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

VanderMolen v. Horn
W.D. Michigan, 2025
Mazumder v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2023
Booker v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2023
Liggons v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2023
Price v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2020
Crews v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2019
United States v. Shelton Ketter
908 F.3d 61 (Fourth Circuit, 2018)
United States v. Larry Nichols
897 F.3d 729 (Sixth Circuit, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
702 F. App'x 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-john-perotti-ca6-2017.