M. HANNAH LAUCK, District Judge.
Petitioner, a federal inmate proceeding with counsel, submitted this successive motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence ("§ 2255 Motion," ECF No. 276).
On February 9, 2000, Petitioner pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute at least one kilogram of methamphetamine. (Presentence Report (hereinafter, "PSR"), at 1.) The probation officer prepared a PSR for Petitioner prior to sentencing. In the PSR, the probation officer found Petitioner to be a career offender because the offense of conviction was a felony controlled substance offense and Petitioner previously had been convicted of at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. (Id. 129.)
By Order entered on May 23, 2002, the Court denied Petitioner's first 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion. (See ECF No. 227.) On July 12, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted Petitioner authorization to file this successive § 2255 motion. (ECF No. 274, at 1.) As discussed below, Petitioner's claim is barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(2) as successive and is untimely under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f).
The Fourth Circuit granted Petitioner pre-filing authorization to file a successive motion in this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(2). Under § 2255(h)(2), Petitioner must demonstrate that his claim is based upon "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. § 2255(h)(2). In his § 2255 Motion, Petitioner raises entitlement to relief based upon the following claim:
The Fourth Circuit's determination that Petitioner satisfies § 2255(h) "is `tentative in the following sense: the district court must dismiss the motion that [the Fourth Circuit has] allowed the applicant to file, without reaching the merits of the motion, if the court finds that the movant has not satisfied the requirements for the filing of such a motion.' McLeod v. Peguese, 337 F. App'x 316, 324 (4th Cir. 2009) (quoting Bennett v. United States, 119 F.3d 468, 470 (7th Cir. 1997)). Thus, it is necessary to examine Petitioner's claim and dismiss it, if the Court finds that it is barred under § 2255(h). See United States v. MacDonald, 641 F.3d 596, 604 (4th Cir. 2011) (citing United States v. Winestock, 340 F.3d 200, 205 (4th Cir. 2003)).
To satisfy 28 U.S.0 § 2255(h)(2), Petitioner must demonstrate: (1) the rule announced in Johnson v. United States, 135 S.Ct. 2551 (2015), constitutes a new rule of constitutional law that was previously unavailable; and (2) the Supreme Court has made the rule announced in Johnson retroactive to cases on collateral review. As explained below, Petitioner fails to satisfy these requirements because the Supreme Court has neither extended the rule in Johnson to Sentencing Guidelines challenges, nor made such an extension retroactive.
In Johnson, the Supreme Court held "that imposing an increased sentence under the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act [("ACCA")] violates the Constitution's guarantee of due process." 135 S. Ct. at 2563.
Despite the Supreme Court's explicit refusal to extend Johnson's holding to the Sentencing Guidelines, Petitioner argues that Beckles only applied to the advisory Sentencing Guidelines, and his mandatory, pre-Booker sentence as a career offender is unconstitutional under Johnson. (Reply 7-14, ECF No. 284.) He argues that Johnson invalidated the identically worded "residual clause" in USSG § 4B 1.2, and he no longer has two predicate "crimes of violence" to find him a career offender. However, Petitioner's attempt to utilize Johnson as a means around the procedural roadblock of § 2255(h)(2) fails. Contrary to Petitioner's assertion, Johnson's holding applies to sentence enhancements pursuant to ACCA, rather than sentence enhancements under § 4B 1.1 under a then-mandatory Sentencing Guidelines regime. See United States v. Gholson, No. 3:99CR178, 2017 WL 6031812, at *3 (E.D. Va. Dec. 5, 2017); United States v. Bowens, No. 3:98CR110, 2017 WL 4533129, at *3 (E.D. Va. Oct. 10, 2017); Mitchell v. United States, No. 3:00-CR-00014, 2017 WL 2275092, *1, *5 n.5 (W.D. Va. May 24, 2017); cf. United States v. Brown, 868 F.3d 297, 303 (4th Cir. 2017) (explaining that "Johnson only recognized that ACCA's residual clause was unconstitutionally vague" and "it did not touch upon the residual clause" of the Sentencing Guidelines). Accordingly, because Johnson fails to extend to Petitioner's sentence pursuant to the Sentencing Guidelines, he fails to satisfy the requirements of § 2255(h)(2). Thus, Petitioner's § 2255 Motion is an improper, successive motion under § 2255(h)(2).
Even if Petitioner's § 2255 Motion was not an improper, successive § 2255 motion, it would also be barred by the statute of limitations. Section 101 of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") amended 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to establish a one-year period of limitation for the filing of a § 2255 Motion. Specifically, 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f) now reads:
28 U.S.C. § 2255(f). Under 28 U.S.C. § 2255(0(1), Petitioner's conviction became final in 2000. Thus, his § 2255 Motion is untimely unless Petitioner demonstrates some basis for a belated commencement of the limitation period. Petitioner argues that his § 2255 Motion is timely under § 2255(f)(3). (§ 2255 Mot. 3; Reply 2-3.)
In order to obtain a belated commencement of the limitation period under § 2255(f)(3), a petitioner "must show: (1) that the Supreme Court recognized a new right; (2) that the right has been . . . made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review'; and (3) that he filed his motion within one year of the date on which the Supreme Court recognized the right." United States v. Mathur, 685 F.3d 396, 398 (4th Cir. 2012). If the Supreme Court "decides a case recognizing a new right, a federal prisoner seeking to assert that right will have one year from this Court's decision within which to file his § 2255 motion." Dodd v. United States, 545 U.S. 353, 358-59 (2005).
Petitioner suggests that that Johnson announced a newly recognized right that the Supreme Court has made retroactively applicable to cases on collateral review, and that right extends not just to ACCA sentences, but also to his sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines. In essence, however, rather than relying on the rule of Johnson, Petitioner seeks the creation of a second new rule extending Johnson to the mandatory Sentencing Guidelines.
Brown, 868 F.3d at 302. The "right asserted" in Johnson is not the same right that Petitioner seeks to assert in this case. As previously discussed, Johnson's holding was limited to those individuals sentenced under ACCA and it did not touch upon the residual clause found in the Sentencing Guidelines. See Brown, 868 F.3d at 303; Mitchell, 2017 WL 2275092, at *5. Because Johnson does not apply to sentence enhancements under USSG § 4B1.2, Petitioner may not utilize Johnson to make his § 2255 Motion timely under § 2255(f)(3). See Brown, 868 F.3d at 302-303 (refusing to extend Johnson to invalidate a career offender sentence under the mandatory guidelines and finding such a challenge untimely). Accordingly, Petitioner's § 2225 Motion is also untimely and must be dismissed.
For the foregoing reasons, Petitioner's § 2255 Motion (ECF Nos. 271, 276) will be DENIED as barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(2) and by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(3). The action will be DISMISSED. A certificate of appealability will be DENIED.
An appropriate Order shall issue.
18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Under the residual clause, the term violent felony had been "defined to include any felony that `involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.' Johnson, 135 S. Ct. at 2555 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)).
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual 4B1.2 (U.S. Sentencing Comm'n 1998). The bolded portion above is identical to the "residual clause" of 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(iii) that Johnson invalidated.