Filed: Jan. 18, 2011
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 10-6678 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. DEMANI JAWARA BOSKET, Defendant – Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Anderson. G. Ross Anderson, Jr., Senior District Judge. (8:07-cr-01362-GRA-1; 8:10-cv-70154-GRA) Submitted: December 15, 2010 Decided: January 18, 2011 Before NIEMEYER, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded by unpublished per
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 10-6678 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. DEMANI JAWARA BOSKET, Defendant – Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Anderson. G. Ross Anderson, Jr., Senior District Judge. (8:07-cr-01362-GRA-1; 8:10-cv-70154-GRA) Submitted: December 15, 2010 Decided: January 18, 2011 Before NIEMEYER, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded by unpublished per c..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 10-6678
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
DEMANI JAWARA BOSKET,
Defendant – Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Anderson. G. Ross Anderson, Jr., Senior
District Judge. (8:07-cr-01362-GRA-1; 8:10-cv-70154-GRA)
Submitted: December 15, 2010 Decided: January 18, 2011
Before NIEMEYER, SHEDD, and AGEE, Circuit Judges.
Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Demani Jawara Bosket, Appellant Pro Se. Alan Lance Crick,
Assistant United States Attorney, Greenville, South Carolina,
for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Demani Jawara Bosket appeals the district court’s
order denying relief on his post-judgment motion to dismiss
indictment for lack of jurisdiction that the district court
recharacterized as a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (2006). We
vacate the order and remand for further proceedings.
Bosket was convicted after a jury trial of possessing
a firearm and ammunition after having been convicted of a
felony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (2006), and the
district court sentenced him to 96 months in prison and three
years of supervised release. Bosket appealed, and we affirmed
on December 15, 2009. See United States v. Bosket, 356 F. App’x
648 (4th Cir. 2009). Bosket did not petition for certiorari in
the Supreme Court. His conviction therefore became final on
March 15, 2010, and he had until March 15, 2011, to file a
§ 2255 motion. See Clay v. United States,
537 U.S. 522, 527
(2003).
On January 21, 2010, Bosket filed his pro se motion to
dismiss indictment for lack of jurisdiction. On January 26,
2010, the district court notified Bosket of its intention to
treat his motion as a § 2255 motion unless he informed the court
that he did not wish the matter to be treated as a § 2255 motion
within twenty days “plus three days for mail time.” If Bosket
did object, the district court stated that it would rule on the
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motion as styled. Twenty days after the order was entered was
Monday, February 15, 2010, a federal holiday; and twenty-three
days after the order was entered was February 18, 2010. In
Bosket’s response dated February 10, 2010, post-marked February
12, 2010, and filed by the district court on February 16, 2010,
he stated that he “would not like for the courts to construe”
his motion as a § 2255 motion, and that in the future, he would
submit a proper § 2255 motion before the time expired.
On February 17, 2010, the district court issued an
order stating that Bosket had filed no objections and the court
therefore construed his motion as one filed under § 2255. The
court ordered the Government to respond to the recharacterized
motion, and it did so, moving for summary judgment on the merits
of the claims raised in the initial motion. In his response to
the motion for summary judgment, Bosket both provided argument
as to his original motion and attached a revised § 2255 motion
raising additional claims he wanted to assert under § 2255. In
its final order, the district court denied relief on the
original claims without addressing the additional claims.
In United States v. Emmanuel,
288 F.3d 644, 649 (4th
Cir. 2002), we held that a district court must notify a prisoner
if it intends to recharacterize his motion as the movant’s first
§ 2255 motion. If the prisoner fails to respond within the time
set by the district court, the court may proceed with the
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recharacterization. If the movant agrees to recharacterization,
the court should permit amendments to the motion. If, however,
the movant objects to recharacterization, the court should not
treat the motion as a § 2255 motion but shall rule on the merits
of the motion as filed. Similarly, in Castro v. United States,
540 U.S. 375, 377, 383 (2003), the Supreme Court held that a pro
se litigant must be warned before recharacterization of his
motion as his first § 2255 motion, and the district court must
furthermore “provide the litigant an opportunity to withdraw the
motion or to amend it so that it contains all the § 2255 claims
he believes he has.” Here, the district court erred by treating
Bosket’s motion as a § 2255 motion after he timely objected.
Accordingly, we vacate the district court’s order and
remand for further proceedings. On remand, the district court
should provide Bosket an opportunity to either proceed with his
original motion as styled, or to accept recharacterization and
amend his motion so that it contains all the § 2255 claims he
believes he has. We dispense with oral argument because the
facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the
materials before the court and argument would not aid the
decisional process.
VACATED AND REMANDED
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