Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
No. 14-1296
ALEXANDER CUEVAS,
Petitioner, Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES,
Respondent, Appellee.
Before
Lynch, Chief Judge,
Thompson and Barron, Circuit Judges.
We reverse
of
one
count
of
conspiracy
to
possess
with
intent
to
The
criminal
history
category
at
IV,
yielding
Guidelines
Cuevas's
trial,
the
government
had
filed
an
See 21
U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(C).
While the direct appeal in this case was pending, it came
to light that Annie Dookhan, a chemist at the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health's Hinton Drug Laboratory, had falsified
certificates of drug analysis and contaminated negative samples so
that they would test positive. It was difficult to ascertain which
samples under her supervision resulted in falsified reports and
which did not.
The
-3-
On April 11,
thereby
reducing
the
mandatory
minimum
term
of
See 21 U.S.C.
841(b)(1)(C).
Cuevas's current projected release date is December 10,
2015.
United States, 544 U.S. 295 (2005), United States v. Pettiford, 101
F.3d 199 (1st Cir. 1996), and like cases, he was entitled to reopen
his federal sentence in light of the vacatur of the underlying
state convictions.
motion was timely filed, and that his claim is not procedurally
defaulted.
The district court denied the motion to vacate in a March
13, 2014, memorandum and order.
district
court
granted
Cuevas
Certificate
of
-5-
brief
argues
principally
that
the
state
The
Rather,
the
court
vacated
the
drug
count
in
No.
Thus,
the
record
does
not
reflect
that
the
state
government,
like
the
district
court,
has
such errors are not cognizable under any of the four prongs of
2255.
either.
the
district
court
legally
erred
in
its
application
of
the
defendant
as
"career
offender"
based
on
There, the
unconstitutional.
-7-
Id. at 1135.
United
States,
553
U.S.
137
(2008),
which
clarified
the
Id.
prior
conviction
for
felony
child
abuse
ha[d]
not
been
prior
conviction
has
not
been
vacated,
and
that
distinction matters.").4
The cases that the government cites for its argument that
"misapplications of the federal Sentencing Guidelines" are not
cognizable in 2255 proceedings are all of this ilk. See, e.g.,
Hawkins v. United States, 706 F.3d 820, 822 (7th Cir. 2013)
(petitioner claimed that district court had sentenced him as a
-8-
His
will
'result[]
in
complete
miscarriage
of
justice,'
or
section
2255
claim
must
reveal
'exceptional
Id.
Applying this test, we find that the facts in Cuevas's case -namely, the vacatur of his state convictions in light of Annie
Dookhan's
involvement
in
those
cases
--
are
sufficiently
Our
holding
the
is
narrow.
We
need
not
and
do
not
address
Id.
-10-
Id. at 300-01.
The district
Id. at 301-02.
his state court conviction, the Court affirmed the dismissal of his
2255 motion.
Id. at 311.
Id.
at
302-03.
The
Court
explained
that
this
Id. at 303
-11-
Id. at 301.
appellate
courts
are
bound
by
the
Supreme
Court's
McCoy v. Mass.
Inst. of Tech., 950 F.2d 13, 19 (1st Cir. 1991); see also Igarta
v.
United
States,
626
F.3d
592,
605
n.15
(1st
Cir.
2010)
be
accorded
authoritative.'
great
weight
and
should
be
treated
as
The statute of
See
And
this court has in fact approvingly cited Johnson for the precise
-12-
proposition in question.
defendant who had been sentenced in 1991 to a mandatory fifteenyear sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C.
924(e)(1), based on nine prior state convictions for violent
felonies.
court
granted
defendant's sentence.
relief
Id.
under
2255
and
reduced
the
Id. at
v. United States, 511 U.S. 485 (1994), in which the Supreme Court
stated in dicta that a petitioner who "is successful in attacking
. . . state sentences . . . may then apply for reopening of any
federal sentence enhanced by the state sentences."
Pettiford, 101
We note that
distinction
matters,
says
the
government,
because
-13-
added)).
We
read
Pettiford
(and
Custis)
as
also
See
-14-
at
133-36.
Here,
the
government
argues
that
Mateo
is
not
vacated
persuaded.
on
constitutional
grounds,
but
we
are
not
Instead, Mateo
Id.
guilty plea and ordering a new trial rested upon the violation of
Mateo's right to have entered a voluntary and knowing plea.
We
which
sentence.").
district
court
may
properly
reopen
federal
of
Massachusetts
later
determined
was
"egregious"
Scott, 5 N.E.3d at
-15-
majority
of
our
sister
circuits
have
held
or
States, 662 F.3d 939, 942 (7th Cir. 2011); Stewart v. United
States, 646 F.3d 856, 864 (11th Cir. 2011); United States v.
Pettiford, 612 F.3d 270, 276 (4th Cir. 2010); Doe, 239 F.3d at 475;
LaValle, 175 F.3d at 1108; United States v. Cox, 83 F.3d 336, 339
(10th Cir. 1996); United States v. Nichols, 30 F.3d 35, 36 (5th
Cir. 1994); see also 3 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and
Procedure 626 (4th ed. 2014) ("[A] defendant who has successfully
attacked a state conviction may use 2255 to seek review of any
federal sentence that was enhanced because of the prior state
conviction.").
contrary position.
hold that claims such as Cuevas's are cognizable under the fourth
prong of 2255(a).
The government makes several arguments in favor of its
contention that Cuevas's claim is not cognizable, but we do not
find them persuasive.
First, the government argues that "Cuevas' assertion that
his claim is cognizable under Mateo does not constitute the kind of
-16-
See United States v. Dunbar, 553 F.3d 48, 63 n.4 (1st Cir. 2009)
(declining to find waiver where defendant's brief did "not state
his
claim
artfully"
but
identified
relevant
facts
and
cited
"Speculation that the district court today might impose the same
sentence is not enough to overcome the fact that, at the time of
his initial sentencing, [Cuevas] was sentenced based upon the
equivalent of a nonexistent offense."
674 F.3d 621, 629 (7th Cir. 2011).
basis of the "frail conjecture" that the district court would have
sentenced Cuevas to 84 months in prison and six years supervised
release even absent these two state convictions.
the
government
contends
that
Johnson
is
-18-
our conclusion.
Id. at 2084.7
long
as
the
vacatur
of
the
underlying
state
convictions
Spencer, 773
and
the
government's
"finality-busting
concerns"
have
not
materialized.
Moreover, Johnson holds that a petitioner may reopen a
federal
sentence
based
on
the
vacatur
of
predicate
state
sentence."
544
U.S.
at
298.
This
limitation
But we do
See Custis,
-20-