United States v. Stephen Mitchell
Opinion
The district court granted Stephen Mitchell habeas relief and gave him a sentence of time-served with three years of supervised release. Both Mitchell and the United States appealed. Since their respective appeals were filed, this circuit has decided substantially-similar cases. Bound by these recent precedents, we affirm the district court in part and reverse in part.
I.
Stephen Mitchell has a long history of run-ins with the law. Among other violations, Mitchell's record features three violent felony offenses: two Tennessee aggravated assault convictions and one Tennessee burglary conviction. And more recently, a jury convicted Mitchell of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
*993
Johnson v. United States
, --- U.S. ----,
The district court agreed and granted Mitchell habeas relief. Specifically, the court found that neither his two aggravated assault convictions nor his burglary conviction could be considered "violent" under the ACCA. Thus, the ACCA no longer applied to his sentence. But the district court faced the question of what form of relief to grant Mitchell. Without the ACCA, the maximum sentence Mitchell could have served for his felon-in-possession conviction was ten years. But Mitchell had already served seventeen years by the end of his habeas proceeding. So the district court decided to release Mitchell from custody and correct his sentence to "time-served." The district court also re-imposed Mitchell's original three years of supervised release.
The government and Mitchell cross-appealed.
II.
The government argues that Mitchell's prior convictions qualify as "violent" under the ACCA. But while its appeal was pending, this court held that the "building provision" of Tennessee's 1973 version of third-degree burglary could not be considered "violent" under the ACCA.
Cradler v. United States
,
Without this burglary conviction, the ACCA no longer applies to Mitchell. The ACCA requires three "violent" felonies before it can enhance a person's sentence. But, as the government concedes, if Mitchell's burglary conviction is not considered "violent," then he only has two "violent" convictions left-his aggravated assaults. Therefore, the ACCA no longer applies to Mitchell's sentence, and habeas relief was warranted.
III.
Mitchell makes two arguments challenging the specific habeas relief that he obtained. We address each in turn.
Time served. Mitchell contends that the district court erred in giving him a "time-served" sentence as part of his habeas relief. Time-served, Mitchell says, equals the seventeen years he served and thus is "illegal." Although Mitchell will be released either way, he wishes the record to reflect an appropriate non-ACCA sentence.
Once again, this court decided this precise issue while Mitchell's appeal was pending. In
United States v. Nichols
, this court held that a "time-served" sentence corresponds with the actual months that a defendant was imprisoned.
But this court held that such a "time-served" corrected sentence is unlawful. Absent the ACCA enhancement, Nichols could have received only a ten-year-maximum sentence. But when the district court corrected his sentence to remove the enhancement, it gave Nichols "time-served"-or, as discussed above, twelve years. This corrected sentence thus exceeded the statutory maximum by two years. And any sentence "in excess of the statutory maximum" is unlawful.
And, in reviewing Nichols's habeas petition, the court also determined that corrected sentences are subject to "reasonableness review." But in that reasonableness review, the
Nichols
court recognized the distinction between a full-on resentencing and a corrected sentence.
See
As
Nichols
makes clear, a district court that corrects a petitioner's sentence may satisfy reasonableness review in a number of ways. A district court may "impose a corrected sentence based on a brief order, a hearing that resembles a de novo sentencing proceeding, or anything in between."
Nichols
,
Accordingly, we remand to the district court for proceedings consistent with the twin holdings of Nichols : (1) a time-served sentence that is equivalent to a term-of-months sentence above the statutory maximum is invalid, and (2) a district court has the discretion to select appropriate proceedings for correcting a sentence-so long as the corrected sentence complies with substantive and procedural reasonableness.
Supervised release
. Mitchell also challenges his supervised release of three years. But since we are remanding Mitchell's case for additional sentencing proceedings, we need not decide if the district court erred in giving him three years of supervised release. On remand, the district court should take the opportunity to provide an appropriate rationale for its supervised release decision.
See
United States v. Webb
,
* * *
*995 We AFFIRM the district court's habeas relief insofar as it held that Mitchell's burglary conviction was not a "violent" felony under the ACCA. The district court's judgment as it related to Mitchell's sentence is VACATED and REMANDED for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Stephen Murray MITCHELL, Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published