JAMES D. WHITTEMORE, District Judge.
BEFORE THE COURT are Petitioner's Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (CV Dkt. 1), Respondent's Motion to Dismiss the Section 2255 motion (CV Dkt. 7), and Petitioner's response to the Motion to Dismiss (CV Dkt. 10). Upon consideration, the Motion to Dismiss is
On May 16, 2011, Petitioner pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count One), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e) (Count Two) (CR Dkt. 26). On November 16, 2011, Petitioner was sentenced to 192 months' imprisonment on Count One to be followed by 60 months of supervised release, and 192 months' imprisonment on Count Two to be followed by 60 months of supervised release, concurrent with Count One (CR Dkt. 40).
Petitioner did not file a direct appeal. He filed his Section 2255 motion on June 20, 2014 (CV Dkt. 1).
Respondent moves to dismiss the Section 2255 motion as time-barred.
28 U.S.C. § 2255(f). See also Pruitt v. United States, 274 F.3d 1315, 1317 (11th Cir. 2001).
The Judgment in Petitioner's criminal case was entered on November 17, 2011 (CR Dkt. 44). Because Petitioner did not file a direct appeal, his judgment of conviction became "final" under § 2255(f)(1) fourteen (14) days later on December 1, 2011. See Adams v. United States, 173 F.3d 1339, 1342 (11th Cir. 1999) (when defendant does not pursue direct appeal, conviction becomes final when time for filing a direct appeal expires); Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A) & (b)(1)(A)(i) ("In a criminal case, a defendant's notice of appeal must be filed in the district court within 14 days after the ... entry of either the judgment or the order being appealed"). Petitioner therefore had one year from that date, December 1, 2012, to file a Section 2255 motion. He did not file the Section 2255 motion until June 20, 2014, approximately 18 months after the limitation period expired.
Apparently recognizing the untimeliness of his Section 2255 motion under 2255(f)(1), Petitioner argues entitlement to a delayed start of the one-year limitation under Section 2255(f)(3) based upon the Supreme Court's decision in Descamps v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2276 (2013)(see CV Dkt. 10). Descamps, however, did not create a newly recognized right. United States v. Eason, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168419, at* 6 (D. Minn. Dec. 3, 2014) (unpublished) ("[T]he decision in Descamps did not announce a new right, rather it reaffirmed a previous rule.") (citing United States v. Montes, 570 F. App'x 830, 831 (10th Cir. 2014) ("[T]he Descamps decision did not recognize a new right."); Deleston v. Wilson, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94442, 2014 WL 3384680, at *7 (D. Minn. July 10, 2014) ("[T]he Court finds that the savings clause does not apply to Deleston's current claims, because he has not shown that his claims are based on any recent change in the law as Descamps did not announce a new rule of law, it announced a rule dictated by prior precedent.")); Weeks v. Hastings, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110749, at* 3 (S.D. Ga. Aug. 11, 2014) ("Descamps did not announce a new rule but provided further clarification on the proper roles and use of the established categorical and modified categorical approaches."); Harr v. United States, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58692, at *8 (C.D. Ill. Apr. 28, 2014) ("Descamps did not announce a new rule, but rather reaffirmed existing Supreme Court precedent while rejecting the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal's departure from established Supreme Court caselaw."). Moreover, district courts have uniformly rejected the retroactive application of Descamps. See Reed v. United States, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146141, 2013 WL 5567703, at* 3 (M.D.Fla.2013); Ebron v. United States, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167379, at *6 (E.D.N.C. Dec. 3, 2014) ("Descamps ... announced [a] purely procedural rule[] that do[es] not apply retroactively on collateral review."); United States v. Chapman, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65907, at *10 (D. Tex. May 14, 2014) ("While no circuit court has addressed the issue, the district courts that have done so consistently hold that Descamps does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review.") (citations omitted). Therefore, because Descamps neither recognizes a new right nor applies retroactively on collateral review, Petitioner cannot avail himself of a delayed start under Section 2255(f)(3).
Because Petitioner cannot avail himself of a delayed start to the one-year limitation under § 2255(f)(3), his Section 2255 motion is untimely, precluding federal review absent a demonstration of equitable tolling.
Accordingly, it is
1. Respondent's Motion to Dismiss (CV Dkt. 7) is
2. The Clerk of the Court shall enter judgment against Petitioner and close this case.