Fletcher v. United States

• Decision Date: 26 May 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-1220,16-1220
• Parties: Deshawn Maurice FLETCHER, Petitioner–Appellant v. UNITED STATES of America, Respondent–Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

858 F.3d 501

Deshawn Maurice FLETCHER, Petitioner–Appellant

v.UNITED STATES of America, Respondent–Appellee

No. 16-1220

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: November 17, 2016

Filed: May 26, 2017

As Amended July 12, 2017

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied July 20, 2017

Deshawn Maurice Fletcher, Pro Se.

Michael Hansen, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Federal Public Defender's Office, Lincoln, NE, for Petitioner–Appellant.

Sara Elizabeth Fullerton, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Lincoln, NE, Michael P. Norris, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, for Respondent–Appellee.

Before COLLOTON, BEAM, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

Deshawn Fletcher appeals the denial of his motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate, set aside, or correct his criminal sentence. For the reasons below, we affirm the district court.¹

I.

Fletcher pleaded guilty in August 2012 to one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), to 210 months' imprisonment. Fletcher did not appeal the judgment, and his conviction became final fourteen days later when the time to appeal expired. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A) ; Never Misses A Shot v. United States , 413 F.3d 781, 782 (8th Cir. 2005) (per curiam) (noting that a conviction becomes final in the absence of an appeal on the date the time to appeal expires). The district court subsequently reduced Fletcher's sentence to 158 months' imprisonment under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b). His ACCA predicate offenses consisted of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and two Nebraska felony convictions for making terroristic threats (one as a juvenile and one as an adult). At sentencing, Fletcher did not object to the revised presentence investigation report's ACCA classification. Thus, the district court did not have occasion to articulate how Fletcher's terroristic threats convictions qualified as ACCA predicate offenses. Fletcher filed a motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 on November 13, 2015 after the Supreme Court invalidated the residual clause of the ACCA. See Johnson v. United States , ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 2551, 2563, 192 L.Ed.2d 569 (2015) ; Welch v. United States , ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 1257, 1268, 194 L.Ed.2d 387 (2016) (applying Johnson retroactively). The district court denied Fletcher's motion, determining that his prior convictions for making terroristic threats qualify under the force clause. Fletcher appeals.

II.

We review de novo a "district court's determination of whether [a] conviction qualifies as a violent felony under the ACCA." United States v. Schaffer , 818 F.3d 796, 798 (8th Cir. 2016) (citation omitted). Under the ACCA, a person convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years if he has three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Fletcher does not dispute that he has been convicted of a qualifying serious drug offense. Thus, the only question is whether his two Nebraska felony convictions for making terroristic threats qualify as violent felonies.

The ACCA defines a violent felony as:

[A]ny crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, or any act of juvenile delinquency involving the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device that would be punishable by imprisonment for such term if committed by an adult that—

(i) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another; or

(ii) is burglary, arson, or extortion, [or] involves the use of explosives....²

Id. at § 924(e)(2)(B).

The key question in this case is whether a conviction under the Nebraska terroristic threats statute qualifies as a violent felony under the ACCA without the residual clause. However, Fletcher also challenges whether a juvenile conviction for making terroristic threats can meet the preliminary requirement that a qualifying juvenile offense "involv[e] the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device." See id . The parties have generally assumed that this question is part of a single Johnson claim, but we disagree. An act of juvenile delinquency cannot qualify as a violent felony under any clause of the ACCA, including the residual clause, unless the court first determines that it involved the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device. In this way, the question of whether a juvenile conviction involved the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device is completely separate from the question of whether the juvenile conviction is an enumerated offense or qualifies under the force clause. See 924(e)(2)(B)(i), (ii). Indeed, the only way in which the residual clause could have affected a juvenile conviction is if the offense first met the preliminary condition that it involve a firearm, knife, or destructive device. Thus, Fletcher's contention that his juvenile conviction did not involve the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device is a separate claim distinct from his Johnson claim. As a result, it must be timely and not procedurally defaulted on its own. See DeCoteau v. Schweitzer , 774 F.3d 1190, 1192 (8th Cir. 2014) (explaining that timeliness must be assessed on a claim-by-claim basis); Keithley v. Hopkins , 43 F.3d 1216, 1217–18 (8th Cir. 1995) (analyzing procedural default on a claim-by-claim basis).

The Government conceded that Fletcher's § 2255 motion was timely and did not raise procedural default either below or on appeal. However, we have the authority to raise either issue sua sponte . Wood v. Milyard , 566 U.S. 463, 471–72, 132 S.Ct. 1826, 182 L.Ed.2d 733 (2012) ; King v. Kemna , 266 F.3d 816, 822 (8th Cir. 2001) (en banc). Usually, we consider the case as the parties present it, but we may choose to raise procedural default or timeliness sua sponte in "exceptional cases" where the Government has not intentionally or strategically chosen not to raise the issues. Wood , 566 U.S. at 471, 132 S.Ct. 1826 (quotation and citation omitted); see Jones v. Norman , 633 F.3d 661, 666 (8th Cir. 2011) ("We have discretion to do so and have done so to correct an obviously inadvertent omission or an obvious computational error." (quotations and citations omitted)). In this case, the Government's failure to raise procedural default was not intentional or strategic but rather came from the mistaken assumption held by both parties (as well as the district court) that the question of whether the juvenile conviction involved the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device is part of Fletcher's Johnson claim. In these circumstances, we consider it appropriate to raise procedural default sua sponte . Having provided the parties notice and the opportunity to be heard through supplemental briefing, see Dansby v. Hobbs , 766 F.3d 809, 824 (8th Cir. 2014), we determine that Fletcher's claim that his juvenile offense did not involve the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device is procedurally defaulted.

"Habeas review is an extraordinary remedy and will not be allowed to do service for an appeal. Thus, a petitioner may not raise an issue before the district court for the first time in a § 2255 motion if the issue was not presented on direct appeal from the conviction." Jennings v. United States , 696 F.3d 759, 762 (8th Cir. 2012) (quotations and citations omitted). In his § 2255 motion and throughout the appeal, Fletcher argues that Descamps v. United States , ––– U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013), prevents a court from looking beyond the elements of the offense in determining whether his juvenile conviction involved the use or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device. However, as Descamps did not create a "new rule," Headbird v. United States , 813 F.3d 1092, 1097 (8th Cir. 2016), Fletcher had the opportunity to raise this argument before the district court and on direct appeal based on existing precedent. Because he failed to do so, the claim is procedurally defaulted unless Fletcher can demonstrate "either cause and actual prejudice, or that he is actually innocent."See Lindsey v. United States , 615 F.3d 998, 1000 (8th Cir. 2010) (quoting Bousley v. United States , 523 U.S. 614, 622, 118 S.Ct. 1604, 140 L.Ed.2d 828 (1998) ); Bell v. Norris , 586 F.3d 624, 633–34 (8th Cir. 2009). Fletcher has not demonstrated that he meets either requirement as to this claim. Therefore, the claim that his juvenile conviction did not involve a firearm, knife, or destructive device is procedurally defaulted.³

Accordingly, we proceed to the central question of this case: whether Fletcher's Nebraska convictions for making terroristic threats qualify under an ACCA clause other than the residual clause. If the convictions cannot qualify under an ACCA provision other than the residual clause, then Johnson requires resentencing. However, if the convictions qualify under another clause, then Johnson does not affect Fletcher's sentence. Making terroristic threats is not one of the crimes enumerated in § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). Therefore, our analysis turns on whether the Nebraska terroristic threats statute qualifies under the ACCA force clause, § 924(e)(2)(B)(i).

The ACCA force clause encompasses crimes that "ha[ve] as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another." 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i). The Nebraska terroristic threats statute provides as follows:

A person commits terroristic threats if he or she threatens to commit any crime of violence:

(a) With the intent to terrorize another;

(b) With the intent of causing the evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public

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