U.S. v. Winestock

• Decision Date: 25 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-6304,02-6304
• Citation: 340 F.3d 200
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul WINESTOCK, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 200

340 F.3d 200

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul WINESTOCK, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 02-6304

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: February 24, 2003.

Decided: April 25, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED:

Neal Lawrence Walters, University of Virginia School of Law Appellate Litigation Clinic, Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellant.

Barbara Suzanne Skalla, Assistant United States Attorney, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellee.

ON BRIEF:

Thomas M. DiBiagio, United States Attorney, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, and LUTTIG and GREGORY, Circuit Judges.

Vacated and remanded and authorization denied by published opinion. Chief Judge Wilkins wrote the opinion, in which Judge Luttig and Judge Gregory joined.

OPINION

WILKINS, Chief Judge:

Paul Winestock, Jr. appeals a district court order denying his motion for reconsideration of the denial of post conviction relief. Having previously granted a certificate of appealability, see 28 U.S.C.A. § 2253(c) (West Supp.2002), we now hold that Winestock's motion amounted to a successive application for post conviction relief and that the district court therefore lacked jurisdiction to consider it. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 ¶ 8 (West Supp.2002). Accordingly, we vacate the order denying reconsideration and remand with instructions to dismiss. In addition, we deny authorization for Winestock to file a second or successive application. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2244(b)(3) (West Supp.2002).

I.

Winestock was convicted of two cocaine-trafficking offenses. In 1997, this court affirmed Winestock's convictions. See United States v. Winestock, 110 F.3d 62 (4th Cir.) (per curiam) (unpublished table decision), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 855, 118 S.Ct. 151, 139 L.Ed.2d 97 (1997). Two years later, we affirmed the sentence imposed by the district court after it granted Winestock's motion for resentencing based on a retroactive amendment to the sentencing guidelines. See United States v. Winestock, 187 F.3d. 633 (4th Cir.) (per curiam) (unpublished table decision), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 980, 120 S.Ct. 435, 145 L.Ed.2d 340 (1999).

In 2000, Winestock sought post conviction relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 (West Supp.2002). Relying on Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), Winestock alleged that the indictment against him was defective and that his sentence was unlawful. When the Government maintained that Winestock had waived these claims by failing to raise them on appeal, Winestock asserted, inter alia, that any waiver was attributable to ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court denied relief on the ground that Apprendi does not apply retroactively; the court also ruled, in the alternative, that Winestock had waived his claims and that this waiver could not be excused based on ineffective assistance of counsel.

Winestock moved for reconsideration, arguing that (1) the court erred in refusing to apply Apprendi retroactively, (2) his appellate lawyer provided ineffective assistance by failing to raise Winestock's Apprendi claims, and (3) the same lawyer performed deficiently by failing to disclose that he had been imprisoned and disbarred. The district court denied this motion.

Winestock appealed the order denying § 2255 relief and the order denying reconsideration. As to the first order, we denied a certificate of appealability and dismissed the appeal. See United States v. Winestock, 43 Fed.Appx. 685, 686, 2002 WL 1963417 (4th Cir.2002) (per curiam). Thus, only the appeal from the order denying reconsideration is now before us.

II.

The ultimate question here is whether Winestock's motion for reconsideration¹ should have been treated as a successive collateral review application.² This question is important because, as we will discuss more extensively below, review of successive applications is available only in limited circumstances. In order for these limitations to be effective, courts must not allow prisoners to circumvent them by attaching labels other than "successive application" to their pleadings. See Calderon v. Thompson, 523 U.S. 538, 553, 118 S.Ct. 1489, 140 L.Ed.2d 728 (1998).

This responsibility comports with the longstanding practice of courts to classify pro se pleadings from prisoners according to their contents, without regard to their captions. See United States v. Emmanuel, 288 F.3d 644, 647 (4th Cir.2002). This practice has acquired greater significance since the enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996), and the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), Pub.L. No. 104-134, tit. VIII, 110 Stat. 1321, 1321-66 (1996). These statutes place significant restrictions on prisoner litigation (including the limits on successive applications we will discuss below) and thus elevate the degree of caution that courts must exercise when determining how to classify prisoner pleadings. See Emmanuel, 288 F.3d at 647-48. With these concerns in mind, we now examine the relevant statutes and rules and how they relate to each other.

A. Motions for Reconsideration under Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Because Winestock's motion was titled "Motion for Reconsideration, or in the Alternative, Motion for a Certificate of Appealability," we begin our analysis by examining the provisions governing motions for reconsideration. We focus on Fed. R.Civ.P. 60(b), because Winestock's motion was filed more than ten days after the entry of judgment. See Small v. Hunt, 98 F.3d 789, 797 (4th Cir.1996).

Rule 60(b) allows a party to obtain relief from a final judgment based on:

(1) mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect; (2) newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b); (3) fraud (whether heretofore denominated intrinsic or extrinsic), misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party; (4) the judgment is void; (5) the judgment has been satisfied, released or discharged, or a prior judgment upon which it is based has been reversed or otherwise vacated, or it is no longer equitable that the judgment should have prospective application; or (6) any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment.

This rule codifies inherent judicial powers that were previously exercised through a gaggle of common-law writs, which the rule abolishes. See United States v. Beggerly, 524 U.S. 38, 43-45, 118 S.Ct. 1862, 141 L.Ed.2d 32 (1998); Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 233-34, 115 S.Ct. 1447, 131 L.Ed.2d 328 (1995).

The powers reflected in Rule 60(b) are subject to limitations imposed by the rule itself and by precedent. The rule establishes time limits for motions alleging certain grounds for relief. Judicial decisions, meanwhile, have described the limits of relief available under particular components of the rule. See, e.g., Liljeberg v. Health Servs. Acquisition Corp., 486 U.S. 847, 863-64, 108 S.Ct. 2194, 100 L.Ed.2d 855 (1988) (discussing the proper use of the Rule 60(b)(6) "catch-all" provision). District court decisions granting or denying Rule 60(b) relief are reviewed for abuse of discretion, although "the exercise of discretion cannot be permitted to stand if we find it rests upon" an error of law. Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 238, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 138 L.Ed.2d 391 (1997).

B. Limitations on Successive Collateral Review Applications

We turn now to an examination of the limitations on successive collateral review applications. Before the AEDPA was enacted, Congress and the Supreme Court restricted judicial consideration of successive applications through statutes, rules, and decisional law. See McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467, 479-88, 111 S.Ct. 1454, 113 L.Ed.2d 517 (1991). These restrictions applied to claims presented for the first time in a second or successive application ("abusive claims") as well as claims that had been presented in previous applications ("repetitive claims").³ See, e.g., Rule 9(b), Rules Governing § 2255 Proceedings. As discussed below, the AEDPA "codifies some of the pre-existing limits on successive petitions, and further restricts the availability of relief to habeas petitioners." Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651, 664, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996).

1. Substantive Limitations Under the AEDPA

As amended by the AEDPA, § 2255 bars successive applications unless they contain claims relying on

(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.A. § 2255 ¶ 8. A separate provision, also enacted as part of the AEDPA, places similar restrictions on state prisoners seeking to file successive applications under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp.2002). See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2244(b)(2) (West Supp.2002).

An additional limit created by the AEDPA provides that any claim "presented in a second or successive habeas corpus application under section 2254 that was presented in a prior application" must be dismissed. Id. § 2244(b)(1). Although this rule is limited by its terms to § 2254 applications, some courts have also applied it to § 2255 applications. See Taylor v. Gilkey, 314 F.3d 832, 836 (7th Cir.2002); Charles v. Chandler, 180 F.3d 753, 758 (6th Cir. 1999) (per curiam). We need not decide here whether to follow this approach.

2. Procedural Requirements Established by the AEDPA

In addition to enacting the substantive standards we have just described, the AEDPA modified the procedures governing successive collateral review applications. As a result of these...