United States v. Miles , 343 F. App'x 392 ( 2009 )

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
September 14, 2009
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
TENTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 08-3289
v. (Case No. 97-CR-10068-MLB)
MAKONNEN MILES, (D. Kan.)
Defendant-Appellant.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before HARTZ, McKAY, and O’BRIEN, Circuit Judges.
The defendant, Makonnen Miles, brings this pro se appeal challenging the
district court’s denial of the sentence-reduction motion he raised pursuant to 18
U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). The court denied the motion on the grounds that it lacked
jurisdiction to provide relief under Amendment 706 to the United States
Sentencing Guidelines. Specifically, the court concluded that because Defendant
was sentenced pursuant to a statutory mandatory minimum sentence, Amendment
706 provided no grounds to lower his sentence under § 3582(c)(2).
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited,
however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th
Cir. R. 32.1.
As a threshold matter, we must determine whether we have jurisdiction to
hear this appeal. “A timely notice of appeal is both mandatory and
jurisdictional.” United States v. Langham, 77 F.3d 1280, 1280 (10th Cir. 1996).
“In a criminal case, a defendant’s notice of appeal must be filed in the district
court within 10 days after . . . the entry of either the judgment or the order being
appealed.” Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1). The inmate bears the burden of proving the
filing was timely made. Price v. Philpot, 420 F.3d 1158, 1165 (10th Cir. 2005).
When a party is incarcerated, as is Defendant, a filing is considered 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.” Fed. R. App. P. 4(c)(1).
Where a prison has no system designed for legal mail, to take advantage of the
prison mailbox rule, the inmate must submit either a “declaration in compliance
with 28 U.S.C. § 1746” or a “notarized statement.” Id. To be effective, the
declaration or statement must “set forth the date of deposit and state that first-
class postage has been prepaid.” Id.; see also Price, 420 F.3d at 1166; United
States v. Smith, 182 F.3d 733, 734 n.1 (10th Cir. 1999).
Defendant’s notice of appeal was filed on October 20, 2008, three days past
the filing deadline of October 17, 2008. Defendant asserts that he timely filed his
notice of appeal, but that he dropped it in the wrong mailbox. However, the
government argues the filing was untimely because Defendant is not entitled to
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the protections of the prison mailbox rule. Specifically, the government contends
Defendant’s certificate of service fails to comply with the requirements of Federal
Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(c) in that Defendant failed to declare under penalty
of perjury the date on which he gave the documents to prison authorities.
At the outset, Defendant has failed to establish that a system designed for
legal mail was unavailable for him to use. Further, even assuming Defendant
lacked access to a satisfactory legal mail system, Defendant’s certificate of
service fails in numerous ways to meet the requirements of the statute with
respect to regular mail. Because Defendant submitted no notarized statement, his
declaration must comply with § 1746 to be valid. But to be in compliance with §
1746, the inmate must “subscribe” his declaration “as true under penalty of
perjury.” 28 U.S.C. § 1746. Defendant claimed the statement was true to the best
of his information, but failed to attest to it under the penalty of perjury. Because
the emphasized language is specifically required by § 1746, we have previously
found declarations omitting this language to be insufficient. See Price, 420 F.3d
at 1167. Indeed, we have consistently focused on the importance of this
language. See id. at 1165 n.6.
In addition, Defendant made an even more significant omission: under
Rule 4(c), the declaration must include the date of the document’s deposit with
prison authorities. While Defendant’s certificate notes that it was “executed” on
October 9, 2008, it does not specify when it was deposited with prison authorities.
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This is a major distinction, especially where Defendant dated the first page of his
notice of appeal October 12, 2009—three days after the certificate of service was
executed. We cannot even begin to assess the applicability of the prison mailbox
rule, let alone give Defendant the benefit of its protections, where we have no
way to determine the date on which the documents were deposited with prison
authorities.
Finally, as we observed in United States v. Ceballos-Martinez, 387 F.3d
1140, 1145 (10th Cir. 2004), the general rule that we liberally construe the
pleadings of pro se litigants does not relieve such litigants of the burden of
following congressionally established procedural rules. This is especially true
with respect to rules Congress adopted to apply exclusively to pro se litigants,
such as Rule 4(c)(1). Id. at 1146. In this case, Defendant simply has not shown
his compliance with Rule 4(c).
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant’s notice of appeal does not qualify as
timely under the prison mailbox rule, and we lack jurisdiction over his appeal. 1
1
Because we lack jurisdiction over this appeal, we need not address the
merits. We note, however, that we have held that defendants cannot take
advantage of sentence reductions under § 3582(c)(2) where they were sentenced
pursuant to statutory mandatory minimum sentences. See, e.g., United States v.
Smartt, 129 F.3d 539, 540 (10th Cir. 1997); United States v. Lacy, 2009 WL
1491482, at *1 (10th Cir. May 28, 2009); United States v. Dennis, 2009 WL
1416724, at *4 (10th Cir. May 21, 2009).
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Therefore, this appeal is DISMISSED. All other pending motions are DENIED.
Entered for the Court
Monroe G. McKay
Circuit Judge
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