Deandre Beason v. Matthew Marske
Opinion
*933 The Armed Career Criminal Act, housed in § 924(e) of the Federal Criminal Code, mandates a minimum 15-year sentence for a felon who unlawfully possesses a firearm and has three prior convictions for a "serious drug offense" or "violent felony." In 2009, Deandre Beason pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced under the Act. Now, roughly a decade later, the parties agree that under current law none of Beason's three prior convictions count as either violent felonies or serious drug offenses-meaning Beason no longer qualifies as an armed career criminal.
But this observation only gets us so far, as this case turns instead on whether Beason has available a procedural means to secure resentencing. He did not prevail on challenging his conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Nor did he succeed in his pursuit of post-conviction relief under
We conclude that at least one of Beason's grounds for relief-pertaining to two of his three prior convictions-was foreclosed to him at the time of his § 2255 motion. And, because Beason is correct that those two offenses cannot serve as qualifying offenses, he no longer has the three offenses qualifying him as an armed career criminal. While the remainder of the opinion travels the procedural and legal maze to this conclusion, the upshot is that we reverse and remand for the petition to be granted and Beason to be resentenced.
I
Following his 2009 guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of
The sentencing court determined that Beason's juvenile conviction for armed robbery was a qualifying violent felony. Under the Armed Career Criminal Act, a juvenile adjudication counts as a "violent felony" if the same offense would be a violent felony if committed by an adult
and
the offense involves "the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device."
On direct appeal in this court, Beason's counsel submitted an Anders brief, explaining that he could not identify any non-frivolous issues to pursue on appeal. His counsel considered-but rejected-any possible attack on the sentencing court's conclusion that Beason's three prior convictions qualified him as an armed career criminal.
We agreed and dismissed Beason's appeal. See
United States v. Beason
,
We then considered whether Beason's juvenile adjudication for armed robbery qualified as a "violent felony" within the meaning of § 924(e). See
Having no success on direct appeal, Beason then pursued post-conviction relief. In 2013 he invoked
Four years later, and having witnessed certain intervening changes in the law, Beason again pursued post-conviction relief, this time by filing a petition under
In the district court and now on appeal, everyone agrees that Beason is right on the merits. Current caselaw makes clear that neither Beason's drug offenses nor his juvenile adjudication for armed robbery *935 can be used to classify him as an armed career criminal.
But that is not the end of the matter. The question is whether Beason, having already availed himself of a collateral attack under § 2255, can now seek relief under § 2241, the traditional habeas remedy. Section 2255 contains what the law refers to as a "savings clause"-a provision that, as its name implies, preserves and allows the pursuit of habeas corpus relief if the petitioner satisfies particular conditions. The district court denied relief, concluding that the savings clause was not available to Beason because he could have raised the exact two arguments he now pursues under § 2241 in his first collateral attack under § 2255.
II
As a general matter, § 2255 provides the exclusive means for a federal prisoner to collaterally attack his conviction or sentence. But the savings clause in § 2255(e) preserves and authorizes access to traditional habeas corpus relief under
In
Davenport
's wake, we have developed a three-part test implementing
Davenport
's holding. See
Montana v. Cross
,
The government agrees with Beason that he meets the first and third requirements. Notably, the government conceded below-and does not argue to the contrary on appeal-that a circuit court statutory interpretation case like
Spencer
could satisfy the first prong of the savings clause test. This position finds some support in our caselaw. See
Webster
,
We therefore proceed to the only requirement of the savings clause test that is disputed on appeal-whether Beason was foreclosed in his prior § 2255 proceeding from invoking the arguments he now raises to challenge his sentence as an armed
*936
career criminal. If the arguments he presents now were available to him at the time of his § 2255 proceeding, then the § 2255 proceeding was adequate and he cannot proceed any further. But if it "would have been futile" for Beason to raise these arguments in his § 2255 motion because the "law was squarely against him," then the savings clause applies and Beason may proceed and pursue resentencing under § 2241.
Webster
,
A
Beason first argues that neither of his two prior drug convictions qualify as a "serious drug offense" in light of our decision in
Spencer
. Those convictions were Class F and G felonies under Wisconsin law and carried maximum sentences of 12.5 years (Class F) and ten years (Class G). See
We addressed this precise question in
Spencer
, another Armed Career Criminal Act case. See
Beason's § 2241 petition relied on Spencer to argue he was entitled to resentencing. Beason argued that neither of his two Wisconsin drug convictions qualified as serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act and that this position had been foreclosed to him at the time of his § 2255 motion.
The parties agree on the first point: applying Spencer , Beason's prior drug convictions under Wisconsin law do not meet the Armed Career Criminal Act's express ten-year threshold required for "serious drug offenses." We, too, agree, as even Beason's more-serious drug conviction (the Class F felony) carries a maximum term of initial confinement of seven years and six months, well below the ten-year threshold.
The harder question, though, is whether it "would have been futile" for Beason to raise this claim in his original § 2255 motion because "the law was squarely against him."
Montana
,
In confronting the same question, the district court concluded that the law was not squarely against Beason on this point at the time of his § 2255 proceeding, making the savings clause and relief under § 2241 unavailable to him. Beason did not need Spencer , the district court reasoned, to argue that his prior Wisconsin drug convictions carried sentences too short to qualify as serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act. At an even more detailed level, the district court concluded that Beason had failed either to "explain[ ] why a Spencer -type challenge to the inclusion of his drug offense would *937 have failed in 2013 even at the time he filed his first petition" or to "cite any authority suggesting that he was 'actually foreclosed' " from making the argument.
We see the law the other way, in no small part because of our rejection of the argument in Beason's own case. That rejection came in Beason's 2012 direct appeal. There we considered whether Beason could challenge the use of his two Wisconsin drug convictions as qualifying offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act on the basis that the term of imprisonment under Wisconsin law was not long enough. Because the maximum penalty faced by Beason for even the less-serious felony was ten years, we rejected the argument and indeed deemed it "frivolous." To be sure, the argument we considered on direct appeal was a bit different than the one Beason raises here: we concentrated on the total maximum penalty Beason faced and did not address the bifurcated nature of a sentence imposed for a Wisconsin felony. But we nonetheless saw no merit in a contention that Beason's drug convictions failed to carry long enough maximum sentences to qualify as serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
In these circumstances, our conclusion-relating directly as it did to the length of the sentence for a Wisconsin felony-had a clear consequence. Under the law of the case doctrine, Beason was prohibited from "relitigat[ing] in a collateral proceeding an issue that was decided on his direct appeal."
White v. United States
,
B
The government appears to recognize that the argument was foreclosed to Beason at the time he filed his § 2255 motion in 2013. But that acknowledgment does not lead the government to concede that Beason is entitled to be resentenced. It argues instead that he could have challenged the use of his drug convictions as qualifying offenses as soon as we decided Spencer -when Beason's § 2255 motion was still pending. The way for Beason to have done so, the government urges, was by amending his § 2255 motion and seeking relief on the basis of Spencer , not by waiting three years and seeking relief under § 2241.
Answering the government's objection requires remembering how we got here. Recall that we decided Spencer in 2014 after Beason's § 2255 proceedings were already underway. Even more specifically, when we issued our opinion in Spencer , Beason had filed his § 2255 motion and was awaiting a decision by the district court. Beason, however, did not attempt to inject into his § 2255 proceeding any argument about the length of his drug offenses based on Spencer . It was only after the district court denied his § 2255 motion that Beason, as part of his renewed effort to challenge being sentenced as an armed career criminal, invoked § 2241 and relied expressly on Spencer as his basis for relief.
This timeline leads the government to argue that Beason should have reacted to our deciding Spencer when we did by seeking to amend his then-pending § 2255 motion. In the government's view, given this ability to amend under the liberal standard of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15, Beason's Spencer -based argument was indeed available to him during his § 2255 proceeding.
We cannot agree. We decided
Spencer
at a time § 2255(f) 's one-year limitations
*938
period had already expired for Beason. Amending his § 2255 motion, therefore, would have been available to Beason only if his
Spencer
-based claim related back to the claim for relief asserted in his § 2255 motion-that his juvenile adjudication for armed robbery did not count as a violent felony under the Armed Career Criminal Act. On this point, however, the Supreme Court has explained that an amended petition "does not relate back (and thereby escape AEDPA's one-year time limit) when it asserts a new ground for relief supported by facts that differ in both time and type from those the original pleading set forth."
Mayle v. Felix
,
In
Felix
, the Supreme Court emphasized that an amendment does not relate back merely because it "relate[s] to the same trial, conviction, or sentence as a timely filed claim."
The Supreme Court's teachings in Felix guide our assessment of Beason's claims here. What Beason's two claims have in common is that they both assert that the sentencing court committed legal error in sentencing him to a mandatory 15-year term of imprisonment as an armed career criminal. But the similarities end there. The claim Beason presented in his § 2255 motion turned on whether his juvenile adjudication for armed robbery should have been considered a "violent felony" within the meaning of § 924(e) given that the Wisconsin armed robbery statute does not categorically involve a gun, knife, or destructive device. But the Spencer -based claim Beason seeks to pursue under § 2241 is different: the claim Beason now advances hinges on the bifurcated penalty structure imposed for Wisconsin felonies and whether, in light of that structure, his prior drug convictions were for offenses that carried sufficiently long sentences to be considered serious drug offenses under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
All of this leads us to agree with Beason that the claim he asserts now regarding his prior drug offenses and the claim asserted in his § 2255 motion regarding an altogether different qualifying offense lack a unifying "core of operative facts."
Felix
,
C
In these circumstances, then, we conclude that Beason was foreclosed from arguing that his two Wisconsin drug convictions did not count as qualifying offenses at the time of his § 2255 proceeding. The savings clause in § 2255(e) is thus available to Beason, allowing him to seek relief under § 2241. And in light of Spencer , *939 Beason's two Wisconsin drug convictions are not qualifying offenses under § 924(e).
We can stop there, as this conclusion alone entitles Beason to resentencing. Section 2241 authorizes relief from "fundamental sentencing defect[s]," like erroneously sentencing a defendant as an armed career criminal. See
Light v. Caraway
,
Accordingly, we REVERSE the district court's judgment and REMAND with instructions to grant the petition to authorize resentencing.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Deandre J. BEASON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Matthew MARSKE, Respondent-Appellee.
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- 120 cases
- Status
- Published