Brackett v. U.S.A., 01-1466

• Decision Date: 10 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 01-1466,01-1466
• Parties: (1st Cir. 2001) SCOTT BRACKETT, Petitioner, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent, Appellee. Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 60

270 F.3d 60 (1st Cir. 2001)

SCOTT BRACKETT, Petitioner, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 01-1466

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

Heard Sept. 10, 2001

Decided October 31, 2001

Amended November 26, 2001

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge]

Neil A. Hourihan for appellant.

Dina Michael Chaitowitz, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom James B. Farmer, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee.

Before Lynch and Lipez, Circuit Judges, ^*, Senior District Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

This case raises an issue important to the administration of criminal law: the accrual date for the application of the one year limitations period in 28 U.S.C. § 2255(4) (1994 & Supp. II 1996) to a federal prisoner who petitions to reduce his federal sentence because the underlying state convictions (on which the length of the federal sentence is predicated) have since been vacated.

Scott T. Brackett is a federal prisoner who pled guilty in July 1997 to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (1994) and 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (1994 & Supp. 2000). His federal sentence of 108 months became final on March 12, 1998. More than two years later, on December 18, 2000, he filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to set aside his sentence. His claim was that his federal sentence, as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1, was predicated on his having been convicted at least twice before of state crimes; that those convictions had now been set aside by the state court; and that he should now be resentenced. He says he is no longer a career offender and his sentencing range consequently is only 30 to 37 months. Brackett argues that because he has already served this time he should now be released.

The district court dismissed the petition as untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The district court later denied reconsideration on the grounds that Brackett had not brought the petition within one year of the date the sentence became final as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(1) and that none of the other limitation provisions within that statute applied. Gonzalez v. United States, 135 F. Supp. 2d 112, 123-25 (D. Mass. 2001). The district court also issued a certificate of appealability on the question of whether the accrual provision set forth in § 2255(4) was applicable here. Id. at 125-26.

I.

A chronology of the pertinent events is helpful to understand the issues presented. In 1991, Brackett was convicted in state district court of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, on his admission to sufficient facts, and was sentenced to 60 days. In 1993, Brackett pled guilty to a state charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and received a two year suspended sentence. Further, in 1995 he also pled guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon in state court and was placed on probation.

On September 5, 1996, he was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

On October 9, 1997, Brackett moved in state court to vacate the 1991 and 1993 convictions. He argued that the 1991 and 1993 plea colloquies were insufficient and that he was intoxicated at the time of the plea proceedings. In October of 1997, a state district judge denied his motion as to the 1991 conviction. In the 1997 memorandum and ruling from the state district court, the judge found that after seven years there was no preserved record of the defendant's plea conducted before the court. The 1991 case file indicated that Brackett was represented by counsel, and had executed the standard written jury waiver. The reviewing judge noted that the familiar events of federal defendants returning to the state court to vacate state convictions

often repeated themselves in our state courts system as defendants and defense attorneys seek all avenues of relief from federal sentencing guidelines. The resources of state courts, including those of Massachusetts, are called upon time and again to turn the state criminal justice system upside down to find any possible reason to vacate state convictions to afford federal defendants relief from what apparently is becoming a more and more unworkable, mandatory federal sentencing system.

Having reviewed the casefile in this matter at length, and the materials submitted by the defendant in support of his motion, I find no justifiable grounds to allow the defendant's motion. Further, it is to be noted that justice is not best served by the adoption of novel or convoluted arguments designed to ultimately afford defendants relief in state court from a mandatory federal sentencing system. That relief is best found within the federal system itself, be it within the federal courts or within the Congress.

Brackett's other effort, to withdraw the admission to sufficient facts in his 1993 case, was rejected by the state court on February 10, 1998. The reasons Brackett gave for undoing his 1993 plea were that the plea colloquy was incomplete and that Brackett was under the influence of alcohol at the time and was unaware of the possible repercussions that could occur at a later date. The court noted that the tape recording of the plea colloquy no longer existed inasmuch as the defendant had delayed nearly five years in presenting the motion. Although Brackett had the right to appeal from the 1997 and 1998 denials of his motions to vacate the 1991 and 1993 convictions under Rule 30(c)(8) of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure, he did not do so.

On February 19, 1998, Brackett was sentenced on the federal methamphetamine charges. As a result of having two prior state convictions, he was in a criminal history category of VI, had an adjusted offense level of 29, and was sentenced as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. At the time he was sentenced, the prior state convictions stood. The state courts had rebuffed his efforts to vacate those 1991 and 1993 convictions. If the state convictions had then been vacated, his sentence would have been in the 30-37 month range, as opposed to the 108 months he received. Gonzalez, 135 F. Supp. 2d at 117. On March 12, 1998, his federal sentence became final because there had been no appeal. Consequently the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"), Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (Apr. 24, 1996), limit in § 2255(1) of one year from the date of the final judgment of conviction expired before Brackett filed his § 2255 petition on December 18, 2000.

Only after his federal sentence was imposed did Brackett start yet another attempt to vacate his state convictions. On January 3, 2000, he filed a new set of motions to vacate the 1991 and 1993 convictions. In identical motions, Brackett asserted that he was denied effective assistance of counsel in 1991 and 1993 because counsel did not object to his pleading guilty even though counsel knew that he was intoxicated, and for other reasons.

His year 2000 state motions for new trials on his 1993 plea and his 1991 plea were allowed by the state court when the state prosecutor's office agreed to the motions. There was no judicial finding that the pleas should be vacated due to constitutional violations. In fact, the charges against Brackett were pending in the state court system at the time this case was briefed to us.

II.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a prisoner in custody under sentence of a federal court, claiming the right to be released on the ground that the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States, may petition the court that imposed the sentence to vacate, set aside or correct the sentence. The statute provides for a one year period of limitations, which runs from the latest of:

(1) the date on which the judgment of conviction becomes final;

(2) the date on which the impediment to making a motion created by governmental action in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States is removed, if the movant was prevented from making a motion by such governmental action;

(3) the date on which the right asserted was initially recognized by the Supreme Court, if that right has been newly recognized by the Supreme Court and made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review; or

(4) the date on which the facts supporting the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.

28 U.S.C. § 2255. The question on the certificate of appealability concerns only the effect of subsection (4), and it is the only issue which we now consider.

Brackett argues that "the date on which the facts supporting the claim or claims presented could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence" must mean the date on which the state court vacated the prior criminal conviction. The government contends that the statutory language refers to situations where the underlying facts supporting the vacating of the state conviction were not known to the defendant and could not have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence; then the one year runs from the discovery of such facts (or when they could have been discovered).¹ The government says that because Brackett knew of the facts he used to support his state court motions well before the date of his federal sentencing, subsection (4) does not apply and this case is governed by subsection (1). The government argues that Brackett's claim is time barred because more than one year has expired since "the date on which the judgment of conviction [became] final." 28 U.S.C. § 2255(1). We review de novo the issue of statutory interpretation. Trenkler v. United States, No. 00-1657, 268 F.3d , (1st Cir. Oct. 16, 2001).

The problem before us is best understood in context. Through several different mechanisms the...