Castro v. U.S., 01-12181
| Citation | 277 F.3d 1300 |
| Decision Date | 02 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-12181,01-12181 |
| Parties | (11th Cir. 2002) HERNAN O'RYAN CASTRO, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent-Appellee |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit) |
NOTE: THE COURT HAS VACATED THIS OPINION. SEE OPINION OF MAY 7, 2002.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia
Before WILSON, RONEY and FAY, Circuit Judges.
Hernan O'Ryan Castro appeals the district court's dismissal of his habeas corpus petition, which was filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C § 2255. The district court concluded that the petition was successive under § 2255, as amended by the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), and thus not entitled to consideration. The dismissal of O'Ryan Castro's petition raises an issue of first impression in this Circuit: when a district court recharacterizes a federal prisoner's postconviction motion as a petition under § 2255, does that render the prisoner's subsequent attempt to file a § 2255 petition a "second or successive petition" within the purview of AEDPA amendments? Finding some of the opinions of our sister circuits who have considered this issue to be persuasive, we hold that O'Ryan Castro's subsequent § 2255 petition cannot be deemed successive.
In 1992, O'Ryan Castro was convicted and sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and conspiracy to import cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 963. We affirmed the convictions and sentence on March 24, 1994. On July 11, 1994, O'Ryan Castro filed a pro se Motion For New Trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 based upon newly discovered evidence. The evidence consisted of proof that a witness, who testified against him at trial, had entered into an immunity agreement with the government. The government submitted a response in which it stated that it did not object to the motion as demanding relief under both Rule 33 and § 2255. O'Ryan Castro then filed a pro se reply in which he explained that he had filed his motion properly under Rule 33. The district court treated O'Ryan Castro's motion as requesting relief pursuant to both Rule 33 and § 2255 and denied it on October 28, 1994. We affirmed the district court's ruling.
On April 22, 1997, O'Ryan Castro filed his first self-styled § 2255 habeas petition, alleging, among other things, that he failed to receive effective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment. The district court denied this petition and O'Ryan Castro appealed. After granting a certificate of appealability on the ineffective assistance claim, we vacated the order denying his petition and remanded the matter for further evidentiary determinations. We also instructed the district court to examine the record to determine whether O'Ryan Castro's petition was successive. The district court concluded that the petition was successive and dismissed it due to his failure to meet the particular requirements imposed by the amendments to § 2255 regarding successive petitions.
"We review de novo a district court's denial of habeas corpus relief." Dorsey v. Chapman, 262 F.3d 1181, 1185 (11th Cir. 2001). "A district court's factual findings in a habeas corpus proceeding are reviewed for clear error." Id.
Due to the frequency in which pro se litigants draft incognizable motions, "[f]ederal courts have long recognized that they have an obligation to look behind the label of a motion filed by a pro se inmate and determine whether the motion is, in effect, cognizable under a different remedial statutory framework." United States v. Jordan, 915 F.2d 622, 624-25 (11th Cir. 1990). This accommodation was the result of the time-honored practice of construing pro se plaintiffs' pleadings liberally. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 (1972) (per curiam). In accordance with this practice, "district courts routinely convert postconviction motions of prisoners who unsuccessfully seek relief under some other provision of law into motions made under . . . § 2255 and proceeded to determine whether the prisoner was entitled to relief under that statute." Adams v. United States, 155 F.3d 582, 583 (2d Cir. 1998) (per curiam). These conversions were justified because they were harmless and they also assisted prisoner-movants in dealing with legal technicalities that might otherwise preclude prompt adjudication of their claims. Id. "Several courts of appeals . . . have endorsed this approach as fair and efficient." United States v. Miller, 197 F.3d 644, 648 (3d Cir. 1999).
On April 24, 1996, however, the AEDPA took effect and significantly altered the innocuousness of liberally recharacterizing a petitioner's postconviction motion. The AEDPA, which amended § 2255, bars federal prisoners from attacking their convictions through successive habeas corpus petitions except in very limited circumstances.1 Specifically, successive applications may be heard only after an appellate court certifies the petition, because it contains "(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." 28 U.S.C. § 2255. "If a district court receiving a motion under some other provision of law elects to treat it as a motion under § 2255 and then denies it, that may cause the movant's subsequent filing of a motion under § 2255 to be barred as" successive. Adams, 155 F.3d at 583. Consequently, a "court's act of conversion which we approved under pre-AEDPA law because it was useful and harmless might, under AEDPA's new law, become extraordinarily harmful to a prisoner's rights." Id. at 583-84.
O'Ryan Castro filed his initial Rule 33 motion2 prior to the enactment of the AEDPA and his subsequent § 2255 petition after the AEDPA became effective. Despite the fact that O'Ryan Castro filed his Rule 33 motion before the AEDPA's effective date, it nonetheless has the capacity to trigger the procedural strictures that the AEDPA attaches to successive habeas petitions. See Raineri v. United States, 233 F.3d 96, 99 (1st Cir. 2000). This raises the question of whether the district court properly considered O'Ryan Castro's Rule 33 motion as his first § 2255 petition, making his subsequent § 2255 petition successive.
Several circuits have prescribed specific guidelines for construing a claimant's self-styled § 2255 petition when a district court has recharacterized a claimant's prior postconviction motion as a § 2255 petition. The First Circuit, in particular, decided a case that is strikingly similar to the present case. The petitioner in Raineri, like O'Ryan Castro, brought a "Motion for Correction of Sentence and/or New Trial" pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35 and/or Rule 33 prior to the AEDPA's effective date. Id. at 98. The district court, acting sua sponte, found Rules 33 and 35 inapplicable and recharacterized the motion as an application for relief under § 2255. Id. The petitioner submitted a subsequent motion styled as a § 2255 petition that the district court deemed successive and thus dismissed for his failure to obtain the requisite authorization to proceed with a successive petition. Id. at 99. In reversing this dismissal, the First Circuit concluded that "because the court acted sua sponte and without any advance notice to the petitioner, [it could not] treat the earlier pleading as a 'first' habeas petition for AEDPA purposes." Id. at 100-01. In reaching this decision, the First Circuit, persuaded by holdings of the Second and Third Circuits in prior cases, gave due consideration to the importance of protecting a claimant's right to habeas review. Id. at 99-101.
Two years before the First Circuit decided Raineri, the Second Circuit held,
At least until it is decided whether such a conversion or recharacterization can affect the movant's right to bring a future habeas petition, district courts should not recharacterize a motion purportedly made under some other rule as a motion made under § 2255 unless (a) the movant, with knowledge of the potential adverse consequences of such recharacterization, agrees to have the motion so recharacterized, or (b) the court finds that, notwithstanding its designation, the motion should be considered as made under § 2255 because of the nature of the relief sought, and offers the movant the opportunity to withdraw the motion rather than have it so recharacterized.
Adams, 155 F.3d at 584. Similarly, the Third Circuit, "conclude[d] that district courts should discontinue their practice of automatically treating pro se, postconviction motions as § 2255 petitions." United States v. Miller, 197 F.3d 644, 652 (3d Cir. 1999). The Third Circuit, however, went a step further than the procedure announced by the Second Circuit, stating that
upon receipt of pro se pleadings challenging an inmate's conviction or incarceration--whether styled as a § 2255 motion or not--a district court should issue a notice to the petitioner regarding the effect of his pleadings. This notice should advise the petitioner that he can (1) have his motion ruled upon as filed; (2) if his motion is not styled as a § 2255 motion have his motion recharacterized as a § 2255 motion and heard as such, but lose his ability to file successive petitions absent certification by the court of appeals; or (3) withdraw the motion, and file one all-inclusive § 2255 petition within the one-year statutory period.
Id. It also held that this rule was narrow and...
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O'Ryan Castro v. U.S., 01-12181.
...of Georgia. Before WILSON, RONEY and FAY, Circuit Judges. WILSON, Circuit Judge: We vacate our prior opinion, which was reported at 277 F.3d 1300, and substitute this opinion in its Hernan O'Ryan Castro appeals the district court's dismissal of his habeas corpus petition, which was filed pu......
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