Filed: Apr. 30, 2013
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit TENTH CIRCUIT April 30, 2013 Elisabeth A. Shumaker Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 12-6320 (D.C. Nos. 5:11-CV-01388-C and v. 5:10-CR-00247-C-1) (W.D. Okla.) GEORGE BRYAN WALTERS, Defendant - Appellant. ORDER Before BRISCOE, EBEL and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges. Defendant-Appellant George Walters seeks a certificate of appealability (“COA”), see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), so he can appeal
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit TENTH CIRCUIT April 30, 2013 Elisabeth A. Shumaker Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 12-6320 (D.C. Nos. 5:11-CV-01388-C and v. 5:10-CR-00247-C-1) (W.D. Okla.) GEORGE BRYAN WALTERS, Defendant - Appellant. ORDER Before BRISCOE, EBEL and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges. Defendant-Appellant George Walters seeks a certificate of appealability (“COA”), see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), so he can appeal t..
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FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
TENTH CIRCUIT April 30, 2013
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 12-6320
(D.C. Nos. 5:11-CV-01388-C and
v. 5:10-CR-00247-C-1)
(W.D. Okla.)
GEORGE BRYAN WALTERS,
Defendant - Appellant.
ORDER
Before BRISCOE, EBEL and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.
Defendant-Appellant George Walters seeks a certificate of appealability (“COA”),
see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), so he can appeal the district court’s denial of a Fed. R. Civ. P.
60(b) motion. Because Walters’s notice of appeal was untimely, we lack jurisdiction to
consider his COA request. We, therefore, DISMISS this appeal.1
I. Background
Walters pled guilty to one count of possessing child pornography, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). Walters did not file a direct appeal, but he did challenge his
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We GRANT Walters’s motion to proceed on appeal in forma pauperis. See 28 U.S.C.
§ 1915; see also Watkins v. Leyba,
543 F.3d 624, 627 (10th Cir. 2008) (granting motion
to proceed in forma pauperis even though the court dismissed the appeal for lack of
jurisdiction).
conviction and sentence in a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. The district court denied Walters
§ 2255 relief, and this court denied him a COA to challenge that determination on appeal,
see United States v. Walters, 492 F. App’x 900, 901 (10th Cir. 2012) (unpublished).
Thereafter Walters filed a Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) motion, again challenging his conviction
and sentence. The district court denied that motion. Several weeks later, Walters filed a
second Rule 60(b) motion, which the district court again denied. Here, Walters seeks a
COA to appeal the district court’s denial of his second Rule 60(b) motion.
II. Analysis
In order for this court to have jurisdiction to consider Walters’s COA request, he
had to file a notice of appeal within sixty days after the district court entered its order
denying Walters’s second Rule 60(b) motion. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(B)(i);
Watkins, 543 F.3d at 625-27. See generally Bowles v. Russell,
551 U.S. 205, 214 (2007)
(“[T]he timely filing of a notice of appeal in a civil case is a jurisdictional requirement.”).
Walters failed to do so.
The district court denied the Rule 60(b) motion at issue here on October 17, 2012.
The district court received Walters’s notice of appeal on December 19, 2012, two days
late. Because he is incarcerated, however, Walters could benefit from the prison mailbox
rule, Fed. R. App. P. 4(c)(1), which provides that a notice of appeal
is timely if it is deposited in the institution’s internal mail system on or
before the last day for filing. If an institution has a system designed for legal
mail, the inmate must use that system to receive the benefit of this rule.
Timely filing may be shown by a declaration in compliance with 28 U.S.C.
§ 1746 or by a notarized statement, either of which must set forth the date of
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deposit and state that first class postage has been prepaid.
In response to this Court’s jurisdictional inquiry, Walters, who bears the burden of
establishing this Court’s jurisdiction, see United States v. Ceballos-Martinez,
387 F.3d
1140, 1143 (10th Cir. 2004), submitted a document entitled “certificate of service.” In
that document, Walters indicated that he had timely deposited his notice of appeal in the
prison’s “internal mail system” on December 14, 2012, with prepaid postage. Assuming
that the prison did not have a “system designed for legal mail,” Rule 4(c)(1) additionally
required Walters to document that he deposited his notice of appeal in the prison’s
internal mail system by submitting “a declaration in compliance with 28 U.S.C. § 1746 or
by a notarized statement.” See
Ceballos-Martinez, 387 F.3d at 1144-45. But Walters’s
“certificate of service” was not notarized. Nor did it comply with 28 U.S.C. § 1746
because it was not made under “penalty of perjury.” See Price v. Philpot,
420 F.3d 1158,
1165 n.6, 1166-67 (10th Cir. 2005).
Walters’s “certificate of service,” therefore, does not satisfy Fed. R. App. P.
4(c)(1)’s requirements. Without benefit of that rule, his notice of appeal is untimely.
We, therefore, lack jurisdiction to consider Walters’s request for a COA.
Even if we had jurisdiction to consider that COA request, however, we would not
grant Walters a COA or other relief. We are convinced that the district court has
thoroughly considered all of Walters’s challenges to his conviction and sentence, and that
Walters’s claims do not entitle him to relief.
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III. Conclusion
Because Walters’s notice of appeal was untimely, we DISMISS this appeal for
lack of appellate jurisdiction.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
David M. Ebel
Circuit Judge
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