Capozzi v. United States

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 13-1993
DEREK CAPOZZI,
Petitioner, Appellant,
v.
UNITED STATES,
Respondent, Appellee.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge]
Before
Torruella, Howard and Thompson,
Circuit Judges.
Derek Capozzi pro se.
Christopher F. Bator, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Dina Michael
Chaitowitz, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cynthia A. Young, Assistant
U.S. Attorney, Jennifer H. Zacks, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and
Carmen Ortiz, United States Attorney on application for an expanded
certificate of appealability.
September 30, 2014
Per Curiam. This is an appeal from the denial of the
petitioner's motion for relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The
petitioner, Derek Capozzi ("Capozzi"), has moved for
reconsideration of our Order denying his request for an expanded
certificate of appealability ("COA") on his Sixth Amendment claim.
In substance, Capozzi's Sixth Amendment claim alleged that he was
denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel at various stages of
the criminal proceeding and that he was forced to represent himself
at trial. The district court concluded that the Sixth Amendment
claim was time-barred. We refused Capozzi's request for an
expanded COA on the Sixth Amendment claim, concluding that
reasonable jurists could not disagree on the question of whether
the Sixth Amendment claim was timely. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529
U.S. 473, 484 (2000); Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336-38
(2003). We now deny the motion for reconsideration, but we explain
briefly for the benefit of future litigants.
Title 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(1) establishes a one-year
limitation period that begins running on the date on which the
judgment of conviction becomes final. This court previously
concluded that, to the extent that the period of limitation in
subsection 2255(f)(1) applied to any of the claims in this case,
that limitation period expired no later than a date on or about
October 18, 2010. Capozzi filed his section 2255 motion long after
that date. He amended that motion, however, to include a Brady
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claim, see Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and the
government apparently conceded that the Brady claim was timely
because the newly-discovered evidence on which the Brady claim was
based had not been discovered until shortly before Capozzi first
asserted the claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f)(4).1
If we determine the timeliness of each claim in Capozzi's
section 2255 motion separately, his Sixth Amendment claim is
clearly untimely because it was filed long after the limitation
period established by subsection 2255(f)(1) expired in October
2010, and no other part of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(f) applies to the Sixth
Amendment claim. Capozzi argues, however, that his Sixth Amendment
claim was timely because it was part of a section 2255 motion that
included at least one claim that was timely (that is, the Brady
claim). In other words, Capozzi takes the position that, so long
as one claim in a section 2255 motion is timely, all claims
included in the motion are timely. His position is based on the
holding in the now-overruled Eleventh Circuit decision of Walker v.
Crosby, 341 F.3d 1240 (11th Cir. 2003), overruled by Zack v.
Tucker, 704 F.3d 917 (11th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 134 S.
Ct. 156 (2013).
We now join all of the other circuits that have decided
1
The district court ultimately rejected the Brady claim on its
merits, but it granted a COA on the claim. It also granted a COA
on virtually identical claims lodged by several of Capozzi's co-
defendants. See United States v. DeCologero, No. 01-10373-RWZ,
2013 WL 3728409, at *10 (D. Mass. July 11, 2013).
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the question, and we hold that the period of limitation in 28
U.S.C. § 2255(f) should be applied on a claim-by-claim basis. See
Zack, 704 F.3d at 926; Prendergast v. Clements, 699 F.3d 1182,
1186-88 (10th Cir. 2012); Mardesich v. Cate, 668 F.3d 1164, 1169-71
(9th Cir. 2012); Souliotes v. Evans, 622 F.3d 1173, 1179-80 (9th
Cir. 2010), vacated on other grds., 654 F.3d 902 (9th Cir. 2011);
Bachman v. Bagley, 487 F.3d 979, 982-84 (6th Cir. 2007); Fielder v.
Varner, 379 F.3d 113, 117-22 (3d Cir. 2004)); see also Mayle v.
Felix, 545 U.S. 644, 662 (2005); Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 U.S. 408,
416 n. 6 (2005). Under this approach, Capozzi's Sixth Amendment
claim is clearly time-barred, and there is no arguable claim to the
contrary.
The motion for reconsideration is denied.
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