United States v. Chisum , 156 F. App'x 75 ( 2005 )


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  •                                                                            F I L E D
    United States Court of Appeals
    Tenth Circuit
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    November 29, 2005
    FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
    Clerk of Court
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    No. 05-7124
    v.                                                 (D.C. No. 05-CR-43-W)
    (E.D. Okla.)
    JIMMY C. CHISUM,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    ORDER AND JUDGMENT
    Before KELLY, LUCERO, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.
    Jimmy C. Chisum moves for an emergency stay of his criminal trial for
    income tax evasion, which was set to begin on November 28, 2005. The motion
    was not filed in this court until November 28. The basis of his motion is that the
    Tenth Circuit should resolve before trial his interlocutory appeal from the district
    court’s orders denying his pretrial motions. Notwithstanding the untimeliness of
    his motion, because we conclude that we have no jurisdiction over the underlying
    appeal, we dismiss the appeal and deny the emergency motion for stay.
    Mr. Chisum’s notice of appeal asserts that the district court’s denial of his
    pre-trial motion to dismiss the case for failure to allege a crime, to state a charge,
    or to issue a target letter violates his right to freely exercise his religion and his
    right to due process, and subjects him to involuntary servitude under the
    Thirteenth Amendment.
    Appellate jurisdiction over the underlying appeal is a prerequisite for this
    court’s consideration of a stay pending appeal. Desktop Direct, Inc. v. Digital
    Equip. Corp., 
    993 F.2d 755
    , 756-57 (10th Cir. 1993). This court has an
    independent duty to examine its own jurisdiction in the first instance. Maier v.
    EPA, 
    114 F.3d 1032
    , 1036 (10th Cir. 1997). We have jurisdiction over “appeals
    from all final decisions of the district courts of the United States.” 
    28 U.S.C. § 1291
    . A decision is considered final under this section when it “ends the
    litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the
    judgment.” Gray v. Baker, 
    399 F.3d 1241
    , 1244 (10th Cir. 2005) (quotation
    marks omitted). Clearly, the district court’s orders have not ended the litigation
    and are not final.
    Interlocutory review of non-final decisions is warranted for a “small class
    [of cases] which finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral
    to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too
    independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred
    until the whole case is adjudicated.” Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp. ,
    
    337 U.S. 541
    , 546 (1949). “To establish jurisdiction under the collateral order
    -2-
    doctrine, defendants must establish that the district court’s order (1) conclusively
    determined the disputed question, (2) resolved an important issue completely
    separate from the merits of the case, and (3) is effectively unreviewable on appeal
    from a final judgment.” Gray, 
    399 F.3d at 1245
    . It does not appear that the
    district court’s order in this case concerned issues separate from the merits of the
    criminal trial, thus it is not a reviewable interlocutory order. We need not reach
    the other two prongs of the collateral order test. See Magic Circle Energy 1981-A
    Drilling Program v. Lindsey (In re Magic Circle Energy Corp.), 
    889 F.2d 950
    ,
    954 (10th Cir. 1989) (noting that this court need not address all prongs of the test
    if any one is not satisfied).
    Because we conclude that the district court’s denial of Mr. Chisum’s
    motion is not a final decision nor an appealable collateral order, we must dismiss
    this appeal for lack of jurisdiction. We therefore deny the emergency motion for
    stay.
    The appeal is DISMISSED and the motion for emergency stay is DENIED.
    Entered for the Court
    PER CURIAM
    -3-
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 05-7124

Citation Numbers: 156 F. App'x 75

Judges: Kelly, Lucero, Per Curiam, Tymkovich

Filed Date: 11/29/2005

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/19/2024