Walls v. Hemingway

27 F. App'x 553
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 12, 2001
DocketNo. 99-2304
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 27 F. App'x 553 (Walls v. Hemingway) 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
Walls v. Hemingway, 27 F. App'x 553 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This case has been before this court on a prior occasion. See United States v. Walls, No. 95-2373, 1998 WL 552907 (6th Cir. Aug.ll, 1998) (unpublished opinion)) (reversing the defendant’s conviction and remanding for a new trial). Felix Walls now appeals a district court judgment denying his habeas corpus petition filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. We will affirm because we find that the defendant’s double jeopardy claim has no merit.

Walls was indicted on January 21, 1993 in Criminal Case No. 92-80236, and charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, two counts of laundering of monetary instruments in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956, and one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Walls was arrested on September 20, 1994 and has been in con[554]*554tinuous federal custody. The grand jury then returned a first superseding indictment. On June 15,1995, the jury returned a verdict of guilty against Walls on the conspiracy counts, but acquitted him on the other counts. On December 6, 1995, Walls was sentenced to concurrent terms of 360 and 60 months. Defendant appealed.

On direct appeal, a divided panel of this court reversed and remanded because Walls was prevented from calling a witness (Bernard Schrott) necessary to his defense, and because the trial court failed to adequately ascertain whether a juror had been tainted by the receipt of extraneous information, both in violation of the Sixth Amendment. Walls, supra.

Upon remand to the district court, the government procured a second superseding indictment.1 A third superseding indictment was filed on May 11, 1999.2 Count One of the third superseding indictment charges Walls with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine. Count Two charges the defendant with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

On July 14, 1999, Walls, proceeding pro se at the time,3 filed a “Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Ad Subjicienden Instanter” pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, asserting that he was being held in violation of his constitutional rights because: 1) the reprosecution of him was in violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 2) the third superseding indictment under which he was being held was in violation of the statute of limitations, and 3) his right to a speedy trial was violated. The petition was assigned Civil Case No. 99-CV-73493-DT. The district court construed the petition as a motion in the criminal case, and denied it on October 7, 1999. Walls’s timely appeal followed.

Appellant makes the same arguments on appeal. First, he argues that the current criminal reprosecution of him is in violation of his constitutional right to be free of double jeopardy. Second, he is being held in violation of his constitutional right to due process, as this prosecution is violative of his right to a speedy trial. Third, he is being held in violation of his constitutional right to due process, as the prosecution is for alleged overt acts for which the statute of limitations had already run at the time the first constitutionally-valid indictment was obtained by the government in this case.

Walls contends “[gjiven the procedural posture of this matter, this appeal procedurally should be treated as an interlocutory appeal in the underlying criminal case rather than the appeal of a Habeas Corpus Petition under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.” Appellant’s Brief at 6; see also id. at 9. The government agrees (Appellee’s Brief at 2), and so do we.

A criminal defendant is entitled to an immediate, interlocutory appeal from the denial of a double jeopardy claim because “[tjhere are simply no further steps that can be taken in the District Court to avoid the trial the defendant maintains is barred.” Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. [555]*555651, 659, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977) ; see also United States v. Stevens, 177 F.3d 579, 583 (6th Cir.1999). Such is not the case with the speedy trial and statute of limitations claims.

In United States v. MacDonald, 435 U.S. 850, 98 S.Ct. 1547, 56 L.Ed.2d 18 (1978) , the Supreme Court held that denial of a pretrial motion to dismiss a criminal prosecution because of an alleged violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial is not an appealable interlocutory order under Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949). “Unlike the protection afforded by the Double Jeopardy Clause, the Speedy Trial Clause does not, either on its face or according to the decisions of this Court, encompass a ‘right not to be tried’ which must be upheld prior to trial if it is to be enjoyed at all.” MacDonald, 435 U.S. at 861, 98 S.Ct. 1547; see also United States v. Davis, 873 F.2d 900, 909 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 923, 110 S.Ct. 292, 107 L.Ed.2d 271 (1989). This court has held that the same result is required when a defendant seeks to appeal the denial of a motion to dismiss under the Speedy Trial Act. United States v. Bilsky, 664 F.2d 613, 616-17 (6th Cir.1981).

We likewise find a lack of appellate jurisdiction over the defendant’s statute of limitations claim on interlocutory appeal. An order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment on statute of limitations grounds is not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine. Davis, 873 F.2d at 908-09; United States v. Pi, 174 F.3d 745, 750-51 (6th Cir.1999). Accordingly, we will not address the second and third arguments on appeal concerning speedy trial and the statute of limitations because they are not properly the subject of an interlocutory appeal.

In his first argument on appeal, Walls contends that the district court erred when it summarily denied his petition for habeas corpus relief because double jeopardy bars the reprosecution of him under the third superseding indictment. Walls claims that the third superseding indictment violates the Double Jeopardy Clause because it was obtained by the government after this Court reversed the defendant’s conviction and the second superseding indictment was dismissed due to the government’s misconduct.

Citing Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 102 S.Ct.

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Ex Parte Graves
271 S.W.3d 801 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
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148 F. App'x 286 (Sixth Circuit, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
27 F. App'x 553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walls-v-hemingway-ca6-2001.