Keith Baranski v. United States
Opinion
In November 2002, a jury convicted Keith Baranski, a federally licensed firearms dealer, of conspiracy to import machine guns from Eastern Europe by submitting forms with false entries to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The district court
1
imposed a sentence of sixty months in prison and three years of supervised release. Baranski appealed; we affirmed. United States v. Baranski,
Baranski completed serving his prison sentence. and three years of supervised release in August 2009. In 2011, he filed a Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis, asserting violations of his constitutional rights at trial. As later amended, the Petition asserted that new evidence establishes the government failed to disclose that it promised cooperating conspirator James Carmi a further sentence reduction for his testimony at trial; misled the court and the defense about Carmi’s incarceration exposure; and deliberately withheld medical records tending to show that Carmi’s trial testimony was tainted by amnesia and memory loss. After a two-day evidentiary hearing, the district court dismissed the Petition in a thorough 72-page Memorandum and Order. Baranski appeals.'We affirm.
I. The Writ of Error Coram Nobis in Federal Court.
The writ of error
comm nobis
is an ancient common law remedy that modern federal courts are authorized to issue under the All Writs Act,
“[T]he All Writs Act is a residual source of authority .... Where a statute specifically addresses the particular issue at hand, it is that authority, and not the All Writs Act, that is controlling.” Carlisle v. United States,
The Supreme Court held in Morgan that the enactment of § 2255 created no bar to granting a writ of error
comm nobis
to a person who was convicted of a federal crime but is no longer in custody.
Res judicata does not apply to successive petitions for federal habeas.or § 2255 relief. See Sanders v. United
*955
States,
In the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Congress imposed stricter limitations on the filing of second and successive § 2255 motions than the abuse-of-the-writ principles applicable under former § 2244(b) and McCleskey. First, a second or successive § 2255 motion must now be authorized “by a three-judge panel of the court of appeals.”
(1) newly discovered evidence that, if proven and viewed in light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have found the movant guilty of the offense; or
(2) . a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable.
§ 2255(h). Section 2255(h)(1) “alters the common law miscarriage of justice exception ... by changing the standard from ‘more likely than not’ to ‘clear and convincing evidence.’ ” United States v. Williams,
The first question is- procedural: whether a coram nobis petitioner whose motion for § 2255 relief was denied while he was in custody must obtain authorization from a three-judge panel of the court of appeals in accordance with § 2244(b)(3)(B). Given the legislative history of these remedies—in particular, the Reviser’s Note explaining that § 2255 is a “procedure in the nature of the ancient writ of error coram nobis”— we believe that Congress, had it focused on-this question, would have required co-ram nobis petitioners in this situation to obtain court of appeals authorization. But the restriction is in § 2244(b), which is plainly limited to “a second or successive habeas corpus application,” and the cross-reference in § 2255(h) is similarly limited to a “second or successive [§ 2255] motion.” As Congress did not impose this *956 restriction on coram nobis petitioners seeking successive post-conviction relief, we may not read it into the statutes.
The second question is substantive: whether AEDPA’s restrictions on the grant of successive relief set forth in § 2255(h)(1) and (2) limit the grant of co-ram
nobis
relief to a petitioner whose motion for § 2255 relief was denied while he was still in custody. We conclude the answer to this question must be yes. Congress and the Supreme Court have reacted to “the increasing burden on federal courts caused by successive and abusive petitions” by enacting and amending
It is widely accepted that custody is the only substantive difference between
coram nobis
and habeas petitions. See Chaidez v. United States,
II.
Turning to the facts of this case, the trial testimony of cooperating conspirators James Carmi and Jeff Knipp, corroborated by other government witnesses and extensive’ documentary evidence, established that Baranski obtained machine guns in Eastern Europe and placed them in a bonded customs warehouse; Carmi used bribes to obtain fictitious letters from Knipp, chief of police of Farber, Missouri, and other law enforcement officials requesting demonstrations or indicating a desire to purchase the weapons; and Baranski used those letters to fraudulently remove machine guns from the "customs warehouse and sell them to Carmi. See
Baranski alleged that his conviction and sentence should be vacated because the government violated the constitutional principles of Brady v. Maryland,
After a two-day evidentiary hearing, the district court rejected all claims on the merits and dismissed the coram nobis petition. First, the court found that Carmi was not promised a Rule 35 sentence reduction in exchange for testifying against Baran-ski. Moreover, “[t]he jury that found Mr. Baranski guilty heard Carmi testify his sentence was cut in half for agreeing to cooperate against Mr. Baranski,” so he “failed to show the likelihood of a different result great enough to undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial.” Second, the court found that Carmi testified “extensively and truthfully” regarding his injury and memory loss issues. None of the documents relating to mental condition and memory loss “would have opened a new line of impeachment or provided a different avenue of impeachment.” There was no Brady violation because the records not produced were “similar to and largely cumulative of the information that was available to Mr. Baranski’s defense team before trial.”
Third, the court found that the government did not mislead the defense regarding Carmi’s incarceration exposure. Baranski has not shown “a reasonable probability that had the PSR’s incorrect sentencing range [for Carmi] been disclosed, the result of the proceeding would have been different, such that confidence in the outcome of the trial is undermined.” Finally, the court found that the allegation of vindictive prosecution was factually without merit.
The district court’s lengthy Memorandum and Order noted that defense counsel’s cross examination at trial included “Carmi’s mental health and memory loss, the charges Carmi pleaded guilty to, his sentencing exposure, promises the Government made to Carmi ... and the benefits he received, and the possibility of Carmi receiving a motion pursuant to Rule 35.” The court further noted “there was corroborated evidence and testimony, including Mr. Baranski’s own personal communications to Carmi, concerning the criminal scheme charged in.the case.” The court concluded “that Mr. Baranski has failed to meet his burden to establish that he is entitled to the extraordinary relief of co-ram nobis.”
On appeal, in addition to challenging all the district court’s essential findings, Bar-anski argues he is entitled to
coram nobis
relief because, if the government had made the required disclosures and not elicited false testimony, “there is a reasonable probability that ... the result of the proceeding would have been different,” the standard for determining whether a Brady/Giglio violation is material. Smith v. Cain,
The Order of the district court dated March 31,2016 is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Keith Byron BARANSKI, Petitioner-Appellant v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent-Appellee
- Cited By
- 33 cases
- Status
- Published