USA v. Williams
| Decision Date | 05 August 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-3174.,09-3174. |
| Citation | 616 F.3d 685 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Adam WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.
Daniel L. Bella, Dean R. Lanter, Office of the United States Attorney, Hammond, IN, Stephan E. Oestreicher, Jr., Robert A. Parker (argued), Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Elizabeth Dorsey Collery, Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section, Staci D. Schweizer (argued), Howrey LLP, Washington, DC, John Maksimovich, Crown Point, IN, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before O'CONNOR, 1 Associate Justice, and KANNE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Adam Williams appeals his conviction for illegal possession of a firearm and various drug distribution offenses. He argues that (1) the district court's failure to inquire into his concerns over his attorney's performance was an abuse of discretion; (2) the statute dispossessing felons of firearms, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), is unconstitutional; and (3) the district court's assessment of the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) was inadequate. We affirm.
As part of a narcotics investigation, in early 2008 the Hammond, Indiana Police Department enlisted the help of a confidential informant (“CI”) in making controlled purchases of crack cocaine and marijuana from Appellant Adam Williams. On three separate occasions, the CI, wearing audio and video recording devices, purchased narcotics from Williams. Based on this electronic surveillance, Hammond police officers obtained a search warrant for Williams's house.
In April 2008, officers arrived at Williams's home to execute the warrant. After knocking on the door to announce their presence and receiving no answer from within, the officers broke down the door. As one of the officers entered, he saw Williams approaching with a handgun pointed toward the doorway. As the other officers entered the house, Williams retreated to his bedroom and placed the gun on the ground a few inches from him. The officers then arrested Williams without incident.
The day after his arrest, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms went to the Hammond city jail to question Williams. After receiving his Miranda rights, Williams explained to agents that when the officers had arrived to execute the warrant, he believed that someone was breaking into his house in an attempt to rob him, which is why he had retrieved the gun from under his bed. He then proceeded to make various inculpatory statements during a videotaped interview. For example, Williams confessed to selling crack, but not marijuana (he claimed that he possessed the latter only for personal use). He told agents that he had been earning approximately $150 per week through his crack sales. Williams also made incriminatory statements about the use to which he put drug paraphernalia found at his home; he explained that he used rubber gloves when he was bagging drugs to keep the drugs out of his system.
Williams subsequently stood trial by jury. At trial, Williams testified in his own defense. He claimed never to have sold crack or marijuana to the CI despite his earlier confession to the contrary. Instead, he claimed that he and the CI had pooled their resources to purchase shared drugs from another dealer named “Casino.” He also explained that his statement that he had been earning $150 each week from crack sales was “misunderstood” by federal agents. Rather, he claimed that he had bought the crack to use as Christmas party favors, and after changing his mind, tried to recoup his expenses by selling the crack. He also tried to negate his inculpatory statement regarding the drug paraphernalia by explaining that it belonged to Casino, who did not live with Williams, but sometimes bagged his drugs in Williams's home. Finally, Williams testified that the handgun did not belong to him, but to his sister, who left it with him to use for his protection.
On the second day of trial, during the government's case-in-chief, Williams asked to speak to the judge outside of the jury's presence. Williams explained to the trial judge that he had not seen one of the video recordings until it was played by the prosecution, despite his request to review all of the video and audio recordings prior to trial. 2 The following exchange occurred:
The Court: Okay.... Counsel, are both of you ready to go?
[AUSA] Lanter: Yes.
(App. at 8-9.) Williams expressed no further concerns after this exchange, and did not move for a new trial.
The jury acquitted Williams on one count of marijuana distribution and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. But the jury found Williams guilty on one count of distributing marijuana, two counts of distributing cocaine base, one count of possessing with intent to distribute crack cocaine, and one count of possessing a firearm as a felon. Williams now appeals his conviction.
Williams first contends that the district court abused its discretion by declining to inquire further into Williams's expressed concerns over his attorney's performance. We held in United States v. Zillges that “[w]hen, for the first time, an accused makes known to the court in some way that he has a complaint about his attorney, the court must rule on the matter.” 978 F.2d 369, 371 (7th Cir.1992). If the accused expresses the reasons for his concerns to the court, “the court may rule without more.” Id. But if the accused does not state the reasons for his concerns, “the court then has a duty to inquire into the basis for the client's objection to counsel and should withhold a ruling until reasons are made known.” Id. at 372; see also United States v. Morris, 714 F.2d 669, 673 (7th Cir.1983).
Zillges, however, involved a defendant's express request for the appointment of new counsel. 978 F.2d at 371. Williams was not requesting a new attorney, but simply was expressing concerns over his current attorney. We have not yet had occasion to expound on Zillges's application in the latter situation. Today, we do. We think that the reasoning in Zillges applies with equal force regardless of whether a complaint is phrased in terms of an express motion for a new attorney or simply in terms of dissatisfaction with one's current attorney.
The government admits that when construed liberally, Williams's comments lend themselves to the possibility that he was either requesting a new attorney or the permission to proceed pro se. The government therefore admits that the court should have inquired further into Williams's concerns instead of abruptly silencing him.
We agree. The district court declined to use the opportunity to inquire fully into Williams's perceived problems with his attorney. The district court's dismissal of Williams's concerns was an abuse of discretion, and served to stifle what may have been legitimate concerns that Williams had about his attorney's performance.
Because we have never addressed a situation where a district court did not inquire into a defendant's concerns with his current attorney, we also have not had occasion to determine the effect of an abuse of discretion in those circumstances. We now hold that the district court's abuse of discretion will only result in a new trial if Williams can show prejudice. If not, then any error was harmless.
In Zillges, we analogized to Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), in reaching our determination that “a district court's failure to conduct a sufficient inquiry into a substitution motion does not constitute reversible error unless it result[s] in a denial of this Sixth Amendment right.” 978 F.2d at 372. We thus determined that a failure to inquire was not a structural error requiring automatic reversal, but instead, was subject to the harmless error standard. Id. at 372-73. To prevail, the defendant was required to “demonstrate that the performance of his attorney was not within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases, and that but for counsel's deficiencies, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. ( citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Zillges and Strickland guide our decision in this case. If a defendant who makes an express motion for substitute counsel must show prejudice to prevail on a district court's failure to inquire, then so too must a defendant who makes only an implicit motion.
Unfortunately for Williams, he is unable to satisfy Strickland's burden. First, Williams is unable to show that his attorney's performance was incompetent. The only evidence he points to of incompetence is that his attorney did not review with him the video...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Hatfield v. Sessions
...from owning a gun—on the grounds that it violates his Second Amendment rights. Hatfield embeds his argument in United States v. Williams , 616 F.3d 685, 692 (7th Cir. 2010), which instructed that "[the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller , 554 U.S. 570, 128 S.Ct. 2783, 171 L.Ed.2d 63......
-
State v. Jorgenson
...Salerno, 481 U.S. at 751, 107 S.Ct. 2095);United States v. Scott, 450 F.3d 863, 874 (9th Cir.2006); see also United States v. Williams, 616 F.3d 685, 692–93 (7th Cir.2010); Arzberger, 592 F.Supp.2d at 602–03. “Absent any individualized determination, there is simply no way of knowing whethe......
-
Kuck v. Danaher
...one and that its objective is advanced by means reasonably related to that objective.” Id. at 802 (quoting United States v. Williams, 616 F.3d 685, 692 (7th Cir.2010) (applying intermediate scrutiny to statute criminalizing possession of a firearm by a convicted felon)). Similarly, in Unite......
-
Tyler v. Hillsdale Cnty. Sheriff's Dep't, 13–1876
......6 A presumption implies “that there must exist the possibility that the ban could be unconstitutional in the face of an as-applied challenge.” United States v. Williams , 616 F.3d 685, 692 (7th Cir. 2010) (applying intermediate scrutiny in challenge to § 922(g)(1) ); Chester I , 628 F.3d at 679 (“[T]he phrase ‘ presumptively lawful regulatory measures' suggests the possibility that one or more of these ‘longstanding’ regulations ‘could be ......
-
THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO CARRY FIREARMS ON CAMPUS.
...these 'longstanding' regulations 'could be unconstitutional in the face of an as-applied challenge.'" (quoting United States v. Williams, 616 F.3d 685, 692 (7th Cir. 2010))). The court in Chester followed Heller by expressly rejecting rational basis review and declined the interpretation th......